As fresh produce companies watch their fuel costs rise sky high, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) stands up for companies that rely on the road.
The FTA says that customers buying petrol or diesel should be told just how much tax they are paying in the process. The association would like to see fuel receipts issued at filling stations detailing the price of the petrol or diesel itself, the fuel duty and the VAT.
According to the FTA the government’s proposed increase in fuel duty of 2p per litre on April 1, should be scrapped and users should be absolutely clear on the extent of the tax they are already paying.
The new taxation is bad news for road dependant industries, such as fresh produce, and will mean a further rise in distribution costs. The 2p per litre increase planned for April comes on top of a 19 per cent, or 14p per litre, increase in the last 12 months. One-third of the operating costs of the heaviest lorries is fuel and the annual fuel bill for a single 40 tonne artic has increased from £26,456 at the beginning of 2000 to £37,461 in 2007.
FTA, which represents the transport interests of companies operating more than 220,000 goods vehicles, many of them carrying fresh fruit and vegetables, believes that the increasing cost of oil, and the huge taxes which are added to it in the UK, impacts on the whole population and is inflationary because everything we use or consume is at some stage transported by road.
Geoff Dossetter, director of external affairs at the FTA, said: “Two-thirds of the pump price of diesel and petrol is taxation. The Government should be content with that.”
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