Diesel excise cut fails to deliver: Truckers save less than 5 cents a litre

Aussie truckers are saving less than 5 cents following the excise cut

Australia’s truckers are just 4.3 cents-a-litre better off as a result of the March 29 federal budget decision to halve fuel excise tax for six months, from 44.2c down to 22.1c.

It means most trucking companies have not been able to pass on any significant fuel cost savings to their customers, which could have eased the pricing pressure on everything from the products on supermarket shelves to household parcel deliveries.

Prior to the budget, trucking companies were able to claim a fuel tax credit of 17.8c a litre against the 44.2c a litre excise, leaving them to pay the remainder as a national road user charge (RUC) of 26.4c a litre.

But now, in a perverse outcome for the industry, the Australian Taxation Office had wound back the fuel tax credit to zero, leaving all heavy vehicle operators on public roads to pay the fuel excise of 22.1c on every litre of diesel they use.

It meant halving the excise had left trucking companies just 4.3 cents a litre better off, the difference between the 26.4c a litre RUC they were paying before the budget and the full 22.1c excise they must pay now.

Container Transport Alliance Australia director Neil Chambers said there was a lot of confusion over the effect of the levy, with some industry players thinking heavy vehicle road transport operators would pass on the full 22.1c a litre reduction in the excise.

But he said the reality was that most transport companies had been unable to cut the fuel levy charges they impose on the base freight rate they charge customers.

On April 3 transport giant TNT actually increased its domestic fuel charge rate from 21 per cent to 22.4 per cent.

Most others large transport operators had done the same.

TOLL GLOBAL EXPRESS FUEL SURCHARGE

TOLL Fuel Surcharge rates for its customers

PICKERING TRANSPORT GROUP FUEL LEVY

Pickering Transport Group fuel levy

SIMON NATIONAL CARRIERS

SIMON NATIONAL CARRIERS FUEL SURCHARGE

Even Australia Post increased its fuel surcharge on parcels from 2.3 per cent in March to 3.1 per cent in April and had already lifted the May to 4.3 per cent.