By Chris Story

Last updated at 15:04, Friday, 31 August 2012

A FILLING station firm is leaving drivers in no doubt about where their money is going.

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Family-run Hills is backing a new campaign to show how much cash the taxman takes every time they fill their tanks.

And the company, which operates 13 forecourts across Cumbria, is backing calls for Chancellor George Osborne to put two further tax hikes on hold.

It is displaying cards on the counters of its sites showing how your fuel money is split and the amount that goes to the Government.

Efforts to raise awareness are being made as petrol and diesel prices have again crept up.

Hills director Michael Gatty

“I’ve been quite surprised by the number who haven’t realised.

“Many comments from customers have been ones of disbelief. In some cases they have been disgusted. They had no idea how much of the price is VAT.

“Hopefully putting these cards out is helping raise awareness.”

The move is part of a campaign by the Taxpayers’ Alliance and the Petrol Retailers’ Association, of which Hills, based at Corby Hill, near Carlisle, is a member.

On Tuesday, prices at the firm’s village headquarters, supplied by BP, stood at 139.9 pence per litre (ppl) for regular unleaded and 145.9ppl for regular diesel.

If a deferred duty increase goes ahead on January 1 and is followed by a planned hike in April, motorists face having to pay an extra six or seven pence per litre.

Cards on Hills’ counters highlight the fact that the UK has the highest fuel taxes in the European Union.

Sixty per cent of what customers pay at the pumps goes to the taxman.

When drivers pay £30, about £18 of that is for the Exchequer with the remaining £12 covering the cost of the fuel – including just £1 for the retailer.

These are figures Mr Gatty, who has worked for Hills for 29 years, believes add weight to the latest campaign’s calls for fuel duty to be frozen for the rest of this parliament – and make people realise that is not the retailers who are claming massive amounts of the price.

“We hope that both of these planned rises will be deferred. We don’t see a big difference in the economy happening between now and then,” he added.

“The cost of fuel affects everything we buy because so much is delivered by road haulage. These are a big part of on-going costs for everybody.

“We are trying to keep our retail prices as competitive as we possibly can. Our margin is lower than it has been at this time of year for the past three years.”

Hills, thought to be the biggest family-run filling station firm in the country, employs 120 people across its sites, all of which include shops in efforts to diversify the business.

As prices have risen, the company has seen motorists change their buying habits to cope with the increase.

Mr Gatty said: “We are selling less fuel. We have been now for about 12 months.

“This is partly because people are not driving as far and maybe not going off for a run at the weekend.

“People also aren’t filling their tanks up as they used to. They are maybe still spending the same £10 or £20 as they have, but that doesn’t buy them as much fuel.”

There are growing calls for it to be made clearer for motorists to know how much of their fuel cash goes to the taxman.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon wants price breakdown on every receipt, hoping that greater transparency would prevent governments hiking up duty in the future.

He plans raising his own Private Members’ Bill on the proposals.

Taxpayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Sinclair said: “Fuel duty is an excessive and unfair burden on struggling families, and businesses.”

Retailers’ association chairman Brian Madderson added: “Far from profiteering from high fuel prices, fuel retailers are also suffering because the Government takes 60 per cent of the cost of every litre. This amounts to a total ‘tax take’ of more than £30 billion from forecourts every year.”

First published at 14:07, Friday, 31 August 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk