PETROL TAXES.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3078, 8 April 1927, Page 2

PETROL TAXES.

Taxes on petrol in the United States ; produced a revenue of about £17,000,----[OOO for the first Six months of 1926. I New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois were the only States which did not impose petrol taxes. Nearly i £11,000,000 of the total collected was distributed to State highway departments. About £3,800,000 wcut to county and local roads, £1,266,000 for State and county road bonds, and less than £1,000,000 was used for miscellaneous purposes. , ■. A total of 3,560,987,586 gallons of gasoline were taxed, and it is estimated that an additional 8 856,450,000 gallons were consumed in the four States in which taxes were not collected. • The. tax ranged from one to live cents., with an average of 2.39 cents per gallon. Since 19,697,832 motor vehicles were registered in the six months' period, the gasoline consumption per vehicle averaged 225 gallons. Gasoline taxes were first imposed in 1919, when four States adopted the tax and derived a revenue of a little more than one million dollars. The practice is now general and the large revenue derived is one of the most important sources of highway income.