Confusion Exposed Over Fuel Pricing In Europe
Monday, 29. August 2011
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As you can imagine, in order to produce my weekly newsletter and my blog I carry out a lot of research. The information I receive comes from a number of sources leaving me to decide on the accuracy before I report it. Most of the time I feel quite happy with the information that I have and when I recently reported on the rip off price of diesel in the UK it seemed about right given the very high level of taxation in this country. It also left readers with the impression that petrol would be the highest also but here we have an anomaly.
I’ve now read that we struggle to get inside the top 10 in Europe with the cost per litre of our petrol. A very strange anomaly uncovered by the RAC Foundation.
We seem to buck the trend in Europe where they sell diesel cheaper than petrol. Whilst our fuel is cheaper than anywhere else in Europe our taxes throw the prices out of kilter.
Surprisingly we are the only country that adds the same amount of duty to our diesel as we do to our petrol. Other countries add less tax to diesels. Here are the comparative fuel prices:
| Country | Petrol Per Litre | Diesel Per Litre |
| Greece | £1.55 | £1.32 |
| Netherlands | £1.54 | £1.25 |
| Belgium | £1.47 | £1.31 |
| France | £1.47 | £1.30 |
| Italy | £1.45 | £1.34 |
| Portugal | £1.45 | £1.29 |
| Finland | £1.42 | £1.25 |
| Germany | £1.40 | £1.27 |
| UK | £1.36 | £1.41 |
| Ireland | £1.35 | £1.28 |
And what do I drive? A bloody diesel! What do you think of the price we pay for fuel, is it right to pay more than any other country for our diesel? By Graham Hill
