THE Chancellor in his Budget today (19 March) has confirmed the cancellation of the fuel duty rise scheduled for September.

The fuel duty rise cancellation was already signalled in the Autumn Statement.

But confirmation will be music to the ears of small businesses and SME firms running small fleets.

It will help contain running costs, already helped by the lower rate of fuel prices at the pumps. Currently these are 128p per litre (581.9p per gallon) on petrol and 135p per litre (613.7p per gallon) on diesel at supermarket prices (source AA fuel price report, February 2014  ).

However, the Chancellor did not take the chance to lower fuel duty either, something which the FTA had wanted to help van delivery and freight transport costs.

Paul Jackson, managing director of fuel and mileage cost reduction specialist TMC, commented:

“Good news and bad news on fuel costs for small fleets. Good because another fuel duty rise was scrapped. Bad because it’s another sign that the Government thinks energy costs will rise still further in future. It’s no longer a game of shaving pennies off the price of a litre. The signal from the Budget is that businesses will have to start looking hard at their mileage and expense bills.”  

However, there was some succour from the Chancellor. Duty on a pint of beer is going down 1p per pint. Cheers!