Labor won’t extend fuel excise cut

Snapshot

Labor will not extend the temporary cut to the fuel excise beyond its September end date, the new Deputy Prime Minister has revealed today.

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles MP said Labor has no plans to extend the cut, which was introduced by the outgoing Liberal-led coalition government in March.

Marles told Seven’s Sunrise it will “take time before Labor can fulfil its election promise to ease cost of living pressures”, but said the Party had “made clear [its] position in relation to the fuel excise cut…[and]…has no intention to change that, there are other ways to deal with the cost of living”.

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The previous Federal Government cut the fuel excise in Australia by 22 per cents a litre for six months as part of a bid to reduce the cost of living in the wake of rising prices at the bowser over the first half of the year. Prior to this motorists were paying 44.2 cents in tax for every litre of fuel they buy.

Former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg made the announcement as part of the coalition’s fourth budget, alongside a raft of other measures aimed at easing increasing financial pressures on Australian households.

It is understood the tax cut will come at a cost of $3 billion to Government coffers.

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) previously said it would monitor local fuel prices more closely in the wake of the excise cut, with the consumer watchdog looking to ensure fuel companies weren’t pocketing the difference and making false or misleading statements about their intentions to hand down the tax cut to consumers.

Labor’s comments come as Australian fuel prices are again starting to climb, with fears of more record highs at the bowser arising just weeks after the national fuel excise was cut.

Prices hit an average peak of 212.5 cents per litre (cpl) on March 20 prior to the announcement, and although they then dropped to a low of 166.3cpl on April 17 – the lowest since the beginning of the year – the figure has continued to rise back up, now sitting at 185cpl according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum. It’s understood by next week motorists could be paying as much as 230cpl at the bowser.