England, March 11: Petrol price has topped £6 a gallon, creating a fuel misery for the British people triggered by the Chancellor’s money-laundering tax plans.
The average cost of petrol hit the new record of 1.32 pounds a liter, further squeezing millions of families already struggling to meet their needs.
According to a survey commissioned by the Automobile Association (AA) the historic high pump price has hammered household budgets by almost £38 a month in just a year.
“Such petrol spike in Britain is very much based on what’s happening in Libya and in the Middle East at the moment,” said Andrew Howard, spokesman for the AA, one of Britain’s oldest motoring organizations.
In Britain, average petrol prices in mid-February hit yet an all-time high of 1.28 pounds a liter in response to the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. It then rose nearly 4 pence a liter in response to the turmoil in Libya.
Howard said that fuel prices were also driven higher by retailers attempting to recoup profits lost after a winter of bad weather, which forced drivers off the roads in November and December, and by an increase in the sales tax VAT from 17.5 percent to 20 percent starting in January.
British petrol prices also stay higher than most other countries due to central government taxation.
A leading environmental group, Greenpeace, has said that the government must change its policies and at the same time move away from oil.
“This is at least the fourth time in the last 10 years that volatile oil prices have pushed the cost of motoring right to the top of the political agenda.
“Every time the issue does raise its head the politicians tinker with the tax regime rather than addressing the cause of the problem — which is our country’s dangerous over-dependence on oil”, said Vicky Wyatt, head of Greenpeace transport campaign.
“Ministers should act immediately to ramp up the efficiency of our cars and invest in electric vehicles by driving forward urgent measures to reduce the amount of oil we use,” she added.
Britain is a producer of oil, from its North Sea oil fields. The price of Brent crude oil has risen 15 percent over the past month, largely in response to the crisis in Libya.
—Agencies