The current issue of Private Eye says that Revenue and Customs has increased the duty on biodiesel to the same as sulphur-free fuel.
This is not so, but the situation is still stupid. It has always been like this.
If you put raw vegetable oil in your car, you will have to pay 47p a litre tax.
If it is treated first by transesterification, you only pay 27p.
If the government was serious about making it easy for everyone to run carbon-neutral cars they should just encourage the car industry to make engines into which you can pour normal veg oil bought from the shop (or, filtered, from the chippy). As you can with some cars like the Ford Mondeo.
Kent businessman Dominic Goodwin runs his modified car on pure vegetable oil and he says: "If the government were to encourage manufacturers to make vehicles that would run on pure vegetable oil that would be a fantastic solution to the problem of global climate change."
Revenue and Customs says its definition of biodiesel reflects the working of the Hydrocarbon Oils Duty Act 1979. "We have concluded that vegetable oil used as a fuel substitute is not biodiesel and does not qualify for the reduced rate of duty."
How moronic can you get? Greening government? Don't make me laugh.
And to think this ungreen Chancellor is to become PM.
>> Low Impact Living factsheets on biodiesel and motoring
If you haved an oil fired boiler you could do this and it wouldn't be taxed because the tax only applies to road use.
ReplyDeleteFarmers in the UK get 'pink diesel' untaxed for off-road use. Round here, funnily enough, a lot of it finds its way into vehicles used on the road and I've neevr heard of anyone being prosecuted! But then, farmers need all the subsidies they can get don't they?