Stewart Hosie backs business over fuel costs

SNP Westminster Treasury spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP, has backed separate demands by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Business (FSB) today for the Treasury to use the massive oil tax windfall to provide relief from high prices at the pumps.

Scottish Chambers of Commerce have demanded that the Chancellor abandon his planned fuel duty increase after the Treasury received a windfall of £505 million from higher than predicted North Sea oil revenues since 1 April.

Meanwhile the FSB have also called on the Chancellor to scrap the October increase, and share the oil windfall with hard pressed motorists.

Mr Hosie, who will bring proposals for a fuel duty regulator to the House of Commons next month, said:

"In just six weeks the Treasury has coined in a windfall in excess of half a billion pounds, while hard pressed motorists are reeling from the price at the pumps.

"The Westminster Government cannot ignore the chorus of demands for fair play on fuel prices.

"After the thumping Labour got at the recent elections, Gordon Brown says he will listen and lead, and this is his big chance to prove he means it.

"It is simply unjustifiable that Scotland, as one of world's largest oil producers, is being ripped off.

"I welcome the intervention by the FSB and Chamber of Commerce, but we should not have to wait on the whim of the Chancellor for a freeze on duty rates.

"The SNP’s proposal for a fuel duty regulator would provide the protection motorists need from rising oil prices, and see any extra cash raised from VAT on higher pump prices go straight back into an equivalent cut in fuel duty, helping motorists living in remote rural communities and the hard pressed haulage industry."

Note:

Findings published by the Chambers of Commerce reveal that since 1 April, the Treasury has received a windfall of £505 million in tax due to the rising price of oil, equivalent to what would be raised by the planned 2p rise in fuel duty in October.