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Originally Posted by ED turbo (mickmalta)
4.9 EF futura......... whoe decides how much exise to take out of fuel?
Dosen't our tax pay for all those trips the politicians take? the $70 000 Statesmans they ride around in? The $100 000 a year pensions they recieve when they retire? The $200 a head lunches they have?
If they bought hyundai getz's (low cost to buy and frugal fuel econony) for petes sake, how much MORE money would the government have to toy with?
The money the government could cut from the fuel exise or GST would not ruin the budget.
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Good call. I'm all for removing excess in the public service.
Heck, im a public servant myself but NEVER take advantage of the allowances etc. which we are provided with. An example - when travelling, we are technically allowed $80 per DAY for food etc. To hell with that, i get paid OK - i'll buy my own lunch thanks. I couldnt sleep at night if i were rorting the country like that.
But even removing the statesmans, pensions, etc is still talking small amounts compared to the quantum we are discussing here. If it were to be offset by a reduction in the excise you're probably talking 0.005 cents per litre...
The excise used to be indexed (i believe twice per annum) to inflation as measured by the CPI index. Excise indexation was aboloshed by the federal government in march 2001 (ironically - as a result of people whinging about rising fuel prices). Fixed at its current rate. At the time, as i recall, people were pretty impressed with the government's decision to do. Very few complaints that the excise would not be increased again. I dont recall any public requests to lower the excise.... until oil prices rose....
I guess what im saying is that we dont give the government much incentive to reduce the excise. They'll be cheered today but the international fuel price will rise again tomorrow and we'll be demanding further tax cuts.
For how long would such a solution be viable?