The cost of filling up a diesel car has reached an all-time high with drivers now paying £6 a gallon. Motoring groups are now warning that people simply will not be able to afford to pay the new record average 132.03p a litre.
It has been revealed that tax on diesel is now proportionately higher than on champagne and Chancellor Alistair Darling is being strongly urged to ditch a planned 2p rise in fuel duty. Prices for petrol are not faring any better with the cost of unleaded also reaching record levels.
Yesterday prices reached an average 118.65p a litre – or £5.39 a gallon. AA president Edmund King said no-one would have believed that diesel would hit £6 a gallon a year ago and is calling on the Chancellor to act fast.
‘Car-dependent people such as the disabled, shift workers and rural dwellers have to cut back on household expenditure as driving is a necessity,’ he said. The AA claims that it now costs £30 a month more to fill up the average car as the cost per litre has risen by 35p in the past year.
Polls have shown that more than half the population now blame the Government for the spiralling cost of fuel. Mr King added: ‘The Chancellor does need to look again at levels of duty of fuel as it taxed as a luxury item, at rates higher than champagne rather than as a necessity.’
Duty on both petrol and diesel is now 50.3p a litre – around 40% of the total cost at the pumps. The duty on champagne is said to be £1.87 a bottle, which means that on a £20 bottle the duty makes up roughly less than 10%.