Chancellor postpones Fuel duty increase.
Chancellor George Osborne has announced that the 3p a litre increase in fuel duty that was going to be imposed from August 2012 is now going to be delayed until January 2013 and duty will be frozen for the rest of this year.
Argument surround the increase, with both businesses and households saying that they don’t want the increase, yet the government, in the shape of Junior Treasury Minister Chloe Smith as late as May 23rd 2012, were saying the increase when it goes ahead wouldn’t have much of an effect businesses or on household budgets.
On the day of the announcement, Newsnight saw the afore mentioned Chloe Smith come face to face with Jeremy Paxman in an effort to explain why the u-turn had been made in this matter in what the press has described as “having crashed and burned and been savaged” in the Mirror, whilst the Guardian called Chancellor Osborne a coward for “getting a junior minister to carry the can” when it does something indefensible such as this. But that’s government’s job and as a junior minister earns around £130,000 a year, I guess its all fair play.
The real nub of this is however that anybody who runs a vehicle or a fleet of vehicles will be pleased for at least some respite in what seems to be the ever increasing cost of fuel and we have to thank the road user groups who have been lobbying to have the increase cancelled or delayed, so well done guys & gal’s.
Of interest, this is the second adjustment to the scheduled rise, because originally it was going to be a 5p hike, but was dropped back to 3p and a proposed further rise of 3p due to take place in January 2012 was cancelled in the Chancellors Autumn statement in 2011. So maybe they are listening, but what ever and ignoring all the “politicking” on things like news night, thanks
