Nats launch ‘axe fuel tax’ petition
National has launched a petition to repeal the Government’s new fuel taxes to “relieve some of the financial pressure” on Kiwis, the party’s leader Simon Bridges has said.
“Ordinary hard-working Kiwi families don’t need the worry of figuring out how they’re going to drive to school or get to the supermarket.”
He said this Government was “pricing them out of their cars.”
On September 30, a new fuel excise tax of 3.5c a litre came into force.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford said the tax would help pay for initiatives such as light rail and better public transport.
“This funding will allow $5 billion more investment in the next decade.
“The alternative is gridlock in our cities, lost productivity in the regions and more deaths on our roads,” Twyford told the Herald earlier this year.
But Bridges said the cost of the taxes is too high and costs are only going to increase as fuel prices climb and the Government imposes new taxes.
“The average New Zealand household is now paying $200 a year more in petrol taxes than this time last year and in Auckland, that figure is $324.”
That’s why National has launched an “axe the tax” petition calling for the Government to scrap these new fuel taxes, he said.
“The Government should provide immediate relief to New Zealanders by cancelling the new fuel taxes it’s imposed and putting a stop to its plans to add more.”
In 2010, Labour also ran an “axe the tax” campaign, lobbying the Government to remove the GST from fruit and veges.
On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern blamed the petrol companies for the high price of fuel, saying consumers were “being fleeced”.
“I am hugely disappointed in the level of price that consumers are currently paying at the pump for fuel.”
She said between 2008 and 2017, the margins importers were taking for themselves more than doubled from 7 per cent to 16 per cent. But petrol firms fired back, with BP blaming the higher prices on the Government’s taxes.