€25 more each month for petrol

PETROL and diesel prices have hit their highest in almost two years, costing motorists an extra €25 each month.

The price of a litre of unleaded is now 137.7 cents, up more than 16c in a year, according to AA Ireland. The cost is at its highest since August 2015. Diesel costs are also up substantially.

Now the motoring group is calling for fuel tax hikes imposed during the recession to be reversed.

MOTORISTS are paying up to €375 extra a year to fill up as petrol and diesel prices hit their highest levels in almost two years.

The findings from the AA Ireland’s pump price survey have prompted fresh demands for the reversal of tax rises introduced in the recession.

Drivers are now paying 137.7 cents a litre for petrol – equating to a monthly bill of €207, up €25 on this time last year and equating to an annual rise of €300.

Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland said the fuel price hikes introduced in austerity budgets were now crippling the recovering economy as the cost of getting to work continues to rise.

‘During the worst years of the recession, tax on petrol and diesel increased by 20c and 18c per litre respectively and the fact that these taxes have outlived the “emergency” actually acts as an anti-stimulus measure, making it more difficult for people to commute to work every day,’ he said. ‘The continued rise of fuel prices is a major concern for Irish motorists.’

Fuel costs have now reached their highest levels since August 2015.

Drivers with diesel cars are faring even worse financially, however, despite lower taxes and Government moves to encourage more of us to switch to such vehicles on environmental grounds.

They are paying 127.1c a litre, equating to a monthly bill of €191 compared to €159 this time last year, an annual rise of €375 a year or just over €31 a month.

Bills are based on the average motorist’s monthly consumption of 150 litres of fuel for annual mileage of 19,200km.

This time last year petrol was 121.1c a litre and diesel was 106.3c. In the space of a year petrol has risen 14% and diesel 20%.

The last time prices at the pumps were higher than today was in August 2015 when petrol and diesel were 143.6c and 128.8c a litre respectively. They had been falling due to lower price of crude oil.

Mr Faughnan said this month’s rise was ‘the sixth successive month in which we have seen prices climb’.

He said: ‘While it’s easy to say that the factors which cause these increases are outside of our control as a country, this simply isn’t the case.

‘The majority of what we pay at the pump is made up of various taxes placed on petrol and diesel.’

According to the AA, 86.52 cent of the total pump price for a litre of petrol and 73.67 cent of the total per litre cost

‘Great concern to many motorists’

of diesel consists of various taxes including VAT and excise duty.

But a spokesman for the Department of Finance said: ‘The price of petrol and diesel is determined by a number of factors, most notably the supply of and demand for these products, the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar as well as the fact the wholesalers enter into forward contracts for the purchase of oil,’ said the spokesman.

‘There is also a difference between crude oil which is the unrefined product and the refined oil products such as petrol and diesel.’