MEDIA RELEASE
Mirror, not inquiry needed for government to understand high fuel prices

3 DECEMBER 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
If the Government wants to understand the causes of high petrol prices, it should look in the mirror, not fund an expensive inquiry, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The recent spike, and now drop, in petrol prices shows that the market’s influence on petrol price varies. What is constant, however, is the Government’s fuel tax, which makes up close to 50 per cent of current prices.”

“The Government’s conspicuous hand-wringing over the conduct on petrol companies looks like an attempt to distract from its ongoing tax revenue grab – set to escalate with further petrol tax hikes in 2019 and 2020.”

“The Prime Minister is playing loose with the truth when she says tax revenue goes straight into improving our roads. Her Government has persued a strategy of raiding excise tax revenues to fund projects motorists don’t use – like trams and cycleways.”

ENDS

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