Verdict on extending fuel tax cut imminent — Wood

A decision on whether to extend the Government’s transport subsidies is in the “Cabinet process” Transport Minister Michael Wood said, with a decision expected imminently.

In March, the Government cut 25 cents a litre from fuel taxes, an equivalent amount from road user charges, and halved the cost of public transport tickets in response to a spike in the cost of fuel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This subsidy was extended in the May Budget, and extended again after that, and is currently due to expire at the end of January.

Advice obtained under the Official Information Act from September told ministers that if the Government wished to extend the cut, it would need to pass a bill in the House to do so before Christmas. Parliament goes into summer recess next week and will not return until February.

Wood said the extension was in the “Cabinet process” and had been put to Cabinet on Monday, but decisions were “still being made which will be confirmed shortly”.

The last Cabinet meeting of the year is next Monday.

Wood confirmed that if the Government decided to extend the subsidies, it would need to legislate that. If it chose to let the subsidies expire it would not need to do anything.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Q+A’S Jack Tame on Sunday:“we will make our judgment very shortly around whether or not we think it can be extended, but if it does, that won’t be for a long period of time.”