Inflation

But the tax is the same before they put up the prices so as there is no increased tax it is not affecting the price.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Alan Ferris said

It affect the %ages though, which was, I thought, what was being discussed. E.g. extreme case) 99p tax in UK +1p actual cost, USA no tax, actual cost 1p. Actual cost double - UK price goes up by 1%, USA cost doubles.

Actual cost halves - USA goes down by 50%, UK goes down by just under

I suppose the trick would be to recall the price of petrol when oil prices (in pounds) were last the same as now.

Yeah, it ws somewhere around there. So the only way Gordon is going to get the price of petrol down below this level is ti give up some of the fuel duties. Like thats gonna happen.

Simon

That was when oil was the same price in dollars as it is now. The exchange rate was around $2/£ then, and $1.73/£ now.

Also, this is comparing spot prices. Petrol companies generally don't pay spot price, they have forward contracts. At that point they would still have a forward contract at a cheaper rate. Now they still have a forward contract at a more expensive rate.

In addition, this is the price for delivery of a barrel of crude today. It takes time to turn this into petrol and deliver it to the pump.

True, and this would be reasonable usually, but why then do they put the price of petrol up immediately the price of oil goes up, but wait when the price comes down.

Simon

"Simon" wrote

Do they?

That's not my experience. There was a delay of a few weeks between the crude price jumping up and pump prices going up.

Petrol is the only product where the price is advertised on 10m high signs outside the shop. Petrol cos generally don't want to be the first to increase prices as people are more likely to shop elsewhere than with any other product.

I am just a cynical old taxman, is there a database with dates and prices out there where we can compare the Oil to forcourt prices. That would nail it.

Simon

I would have thought you would have access to such tables on your systems to check fuel claims.

I could probably get some info on the price of petrol, but not the price of oil, I would need both with dates to make a valid comparison.

Simon