Fuel tax?

[j3r3m7]

Anyone know anything about upcoming tax increases on boat fuel? I'm wondering whether LPG will get nailed soon.

[Mr Bean]

Are you referrring to the proposal to make the use of red diesel in pleasure craft illegal? That's not a tax increase, just a harmonisation issue.

Why should someone with a **** off-sized boat with twin 5000 hp diesels be able to buy fuel at the same price as it is for use on farms and fishing craft? Like buying a Roller, as the expression goes, if you can afford the vehicle you can afford the fuel.

We don't have the option of buying tax-free fuel for our petrol-engined craft. Now if you concert to LPG, that's a different matter......

[DBJTS]

Doesn’t the abbreviation DERV stand for Diesel Engine “Road” Vehicle my understanding was that if a vehicle is used primarily on the road you should pay duty on the fuel, tractors don’t neither do boats so why should we pay road duty on fuel for boats.
As you rightly say LPG for use in boats or heating systems doesn’t attract any road duty. It annoys me no end buying petrol from a pump at the end of a jetty which is obviously for marine use and having to pay road duty on it as well as the captive audience inflated price of the retailer.
We should be getting the duty taken of petrol for marine use not put on red diesel.

[Mr Bean]

Come on DBJTS, you know better than that. If the tax on fuel had anything to do with use of the roads it would be a fraction of what it is. There is an inelastic demand for fuel and like anything where a price hike has little or no impact on demand, the Govt will tax it heavily.

The lower rate of tax was put on this fuel to benefit farmers and fishermen. It is simply a quirk that red diesel can be used in pleasure craft and many people have benefitted over the years. If there were as many boats using diesel in 1928 as there are today, only fishing boats would have qualified and you would have had to have some sort of licence to legitimise its purchase.

If you wanna avoid duty, convert to LPG. You've got a better chance of living to 150 than you have of seeing duty cut on petrol for marine use.

Fight battles you have a chance of winning - not hopeless causes.

[DBJTS]

You know me, champion of hopeless causes