LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Rachel Reeves said in her first budget speech on Wednesday that a temporary five-pence cut in fuel duty would remain in place, saying it would be wrong to raise it amid a time of global uncertainty and a high cost of living.
“I have today decided to freeze fuel duty next year … and I will maintain the existing 5p cut for another year, too. There will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year,” Reeves told parliament.
Duty paid on motor fuels has been frozen since 2011, except for a temporary cut in the 2022/23 tax year, as governments feared a backlash from any plans to resume raising it in line with inflation, especially from drivers in rural areas.
In the last budget, published in March under the previous Conservative government, the cancellation of the scheduled fuel duty rise was estimated to cost the Treasury about 3 billion pounds in the 2024/25 financial year.
The current fuel duty rate for petrol and diesel, which includes the five pence cut, is 52.95 pence per litre.
(Reporting by David Milliken and Sachin Ravikumar; Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
