asked the Minister for Finance the total amount of (a) excise duty and (b) VAT payable in respect of (i) a gallon and (ii) a litre of premium grade petrol.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Petrol Revenue.
23.
The answer is 124.4p excise duty and 53.3p VAT are payable on a gallon of premium grade petrol at present. The corresponding figures for a litre are 27.4p and 11.7p. The VAT figures are based on a current average price.
That represents a total tax now of 177.7p on a gallon of premium grade petrol which on average at the tanks is 266.8p; therefore, 66 per cent of the price at the pumps of premium grade petrol at the moment is in respect of tax. Will the Minister not acknowledge that, in view of the huge increase which this Government have imposed since they came into office when the total tax represented 49 per cent of a lower price, total tax being then 123p as distinct from 178p now, it is time that they passed on some little benefit to the motoring public, the consumer, rather than adding constantly to the burdens of taxation that that figure demonstrates when compared with the figures that applied before the Government took responsibility?
Again we have a preview of what Deputy O'Kennedy will have to say on the Finance Bill. We are not talking on policy. I am simply providing an answer to a statistical question. The figure is 66.7 per cent.
I do not mind giving a preview of what I am going to say on the Finance Bill and I assure him that it will be a long running performance. Will the Minister not acknowledge that, where the level of tax per gallon of premium petrol has increased under this Government from 123p to 178p or in percentage terms from 49 per cent to 67 per cent, that is nothing short of outrageous and that it requires immediate and urgent action by the Government, I hope in the Finance Bill, to reduce the level of excise duty that the Government have heaped on the motoring public and the taxpayer in general?
We have got to get the money in some way. If you want to reduce income tax you have got to raise the revenue some other way.
The Government have been getting it in every way.