Tax Code.

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Questions (79)

Noel Coonan

Question:

74 Deputy Noel J. Coonan asked the Minister for Finance the excise his Department charges on a litre of petrol and diesel; his plans to cut the excise duty; the amount excise has increased over the past five years; the amount taken in taxes for each of those five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36637/08]

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Written answers

Minister for Finance (Deputy Brian Lenihan)

Budget 2009 provided for an increase in the excise rate on petrol to 50.9 cent per litre and for no change to excise on diesel which remains at 36.8 cent per litre. This means that excise on petrol in Ireland is still substantially lower than the EU 15 average and excise on diesel is also below the EU 15 average. It should also be noted that the excise rates on both fuels are below the rates of our main trading partners, in particular the UK rate where excise on petrol and diesel is around 63 cent per litre.

I have no plans to reduce the excise rates on either of these fuels. The Budgetary excise changes (VAT inclusive) since 2003 are set out in the following table.

Budgetary Excise Changes (VAT inclusive) since 2003

Budget	Petrol	Diesel
2003	no change	increased by 3 cent
2004	increased by 5 cent	increased by 5 cent
2005	no change	no change
2006	no change	no change
2007	no change	no change
2008	no change	no change
2009	increased by 8 cent	no change

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the amounts of tax revenue collected from Mineral Oil Tax and VAT on Petrol and Auto Diesel for the years 2003 to August 2008 inclusive are as follows:

Estimated Duty yield from Petrol and Auto Diesel

Mineral Oil Tax	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007 Provisional	2008 End August Provisional
	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m
Petrol	853.8	970.7	1001.9	1026.4	1051.3	724.6
Auto-diesel	731.5	870.7	920.5	1016.7	1076.3	738.2
Total	1585.3	1841.5	1922.4	2043.1	2127.6	1462.8

Estimated VAT yield from Petrol and Auto Diesel

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008 End August
	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m
Petrol	296	342	393	440	465	352
Auto-diesel	32	38	46	53	57	46
Total	329	380	439	493	522	398

Note: The VAT yield from Petrol and Auto Diesel is estimated, as the information to be furnished on VAT returns does not require the yield from particular sectors of trade to be identified. It should also be noted that the VAT content of purchases of Auto Diesel is a deductible credit for business in the Irish VAT system.

The figures provided for VAT receipts for 2008 are estimates of the amount of VAT yield that would be generated by the volume of clearances of oil products up to the end of August. Mineral Oil Tax is paid in the month of clearance of the product but, depending on the nature of the registration status of a trader, VAT returns can be made monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half yearly or annually and this will dictate the point in time when VAT on sales will actually be paid.