Madam, - In his article "Nowhere to Go" (Motors, November 17th) Conor Twomey writes that "Ireland has one of the lowest rates of fuel tax in Europe at just over €0.40 per litre". I am afraid that we are not as fortunate as that.
Excise duty on petrol is set at 44.7 cent per litre. In addition there is a levy of 0.48 cent per litre imposed by the national oil reserves agency. VAT at 21 per cent is then added to duty-inclusive price of the fuel.
With the national average price of a litre of petrol now standing at 102.1 cent, the tax portion of that price is actually 61.6 per cent. Mr Twomey is correct in saying that this is lower than in many other EU countries, notably the UK. However it does still raise approximately €2 billion in revenue for the Exchequer each year.
This time last year the average price of petrol was 86.4 cent per litre. A combination of world market factors and an excise duty increase of 5 cent in the last Budget has led to the 18 per cent increase we have seen since then. It is in this context that the AA is urging the Minister for Finance to reduce excise duty when his Budget is announced next month. - Yours, etc.,
CONOR FAUGHNAN, Public Affairs Manager, AA Ireland, Dublin 2.