TAX AND PETROL PRICES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30365, 14 February 1964, Page 9

TAX AND PETROL PRICES

ALTHOUGH the cost of motor spirit less tax is practically uniform throughout the world, the prices charged to consumers vary considerably from country to country. In France, for example, the retail price of an Imperial gallon of standard motor spirit is 7s 9Jd, which includes a State tax of 6s Hid a gallon. At the other end of the scale standard grade fuel sells at only Is ljd an Imperial gallon in Kuwait, where there are no taxes on petrol. A comparison of the retail prices of standard grade motor spirit in various coun-

tries is given in the latest edition of “Oil and Australia—the Figures Behind the Facts,” a statistical booklet issued annually by the Petroleum Information Bureau (Australia).

Taxation leads to very high retail prices for pertol in Italy (6s” 4d a gallon), Belgium (6s 3d) and Denmark (6s l%d). In each of those countries the tax-free cost of the product is about 2s a gallon.

In Moscow, where the State is the sole producer and distributor of petrol, the consumer pays only 2s o%d a gallon. As there are only about 780,00,0 motor-cars in the whole of the U.S.S.R., however, the price of motor fuel is not of great significance to the people generally. In Australia where ■ capital city retail prices of standard grade petrol range from 3s 3d to 3s 6d a. gallon, the tax is llfd a gallon.