The Scottish National Party (SNP) has proposed an amendment to the recent Budget calling for the introduction of a new fuel duty regulator.
The amendment, which the party also proposed after last year's Budget, follows the party's call for the planned 3p/litre rise in duty due in August to be droppe. It also suggests a mechanism that would automatically trigger a refund to drivers when the price of oil went up by ensuring any extra cash raised from VAT on higher pump prices went straight back into an equivalent cut in fuel duty.
This would ensure that both the haulage sector and general motorist "shared in the oil price windfall instead of being punished with soaring prices", says an SNP spokesperson.
SNP MP Angus MacNeil MP has suggested that if Westminster fails to act on the proposal, poweres should be passed to the Scottish Parliament so that it can do something. "If Scotland had control of fuel duty, the SNP government would introduce a fuel duty regulator to lower prices now," he says.
The proposed SNP Budget amendment has been welcomed by the Road Haulage Association. "Anything that can help bring stability and certainty to the market, we'd be in support of," says Phil Flanders, RHA regional director for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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