Elizabeth Evans calls on Chancellor to Axe Planned Budget Fuel Duty Rise

Ceredigion’s Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Candidate Elizabeth Evans has welcomed her party president's call for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to axe a planned fuel duty rise in his budget this month.

Liberal Democrat President, Tim Farron MP has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer calling on him to axe the planned fuel duty rise in his budget next week.

Labour announced the fuel duty increase in its final budget in power and it will come into force soon.

The average price per litre has now reached 130.03p for unleaded petrol and 135.44p for diesel, a record high. Tax accounts for 63% of the price of fuel at the pump.

Recently the Department for Work and Pensions announced that significantly fewer people than had previously been calculated signed up for Jobseekers Allowance in the early months' of 2011. This news coupled with the higher than expected quarterly tax figures; have meant that the Treasury will have more room for manoeuvre at this month's Budget than was previous thought.

Elizabeth and Tim would like to see the Treasury use this opportunity for some spending in the Budget to axe the proposed fuel duty rise and help hard working people in Ceredigion.

Elizsabeth Evans with Lib Dem President Tim Farron MP
at Tregaron Mart

On a visit to Ceredigion last week, Tim Farron said: "High fuel prices are causing real hardship across the country. I think we need to help hard pressed families and businesses and an easy way of doing that is cutting the cost of fuel. I am calling on the chancellor to use his budget to help us all by doing this",

Elizabeth Evans added: "In rural areas like ours a car is not a luxury it is a necessity. It's therefore crucial that the government seeks to support us by scrapping this planned budgetary fuel rise. Tim is therefore right to call on the Chancellor to do this and I was delighted to meet with him last week and to take him around Tregaron Mart where those concerns were being expressed to us both by farmers and local residents.

"I'm also delighted that our local MP Mark Williams has been fighting our corner by requesting that rural Wales and Ceredigion specifically be included in the Government's rural fuel rebate scheme. The Welsh Office with the support of the Minister David Jones are on-side and it's similarly important that we're successful in this call as the scheme, if implemented, could see a reduction in fuel prices at the pumps in Ceredigion by as much as 5p per litre".

Well said Liz.