Location Transport

Why doesn't the UK gov raise taxes more on fuel? ?

I know they are and have been for a while but it's more to do with public transport this question. Basically, I was at youth council before Christmas and a woman who works for the local travel company came and told us about how the government intend to scrap this thing that exempts tax buses need to pay in fuel to help decrease the budget deficit. Now getting rid of this tax exemption will raise the price of public transport and push people towards using cars which is less environmentally friendly as you can fit less in a car than you can in a bus. Now, my driving instructor said her and anyone who enjoys driving, no matter how high the tax on fuel they'd still drive, so if this is the case, why not keep the tax exemption on buses and as an alternative to help with the budget deficit, increase tax on car drivers, that way those who get put off by price will be pushed towards public transport instead of vice versa. Don't you agree? Btw, just to say, despite my arguement, I couldn't care less about the environment, i'll burn carbon for the sake of it but I'm just saying, with all this stuff about global warming, the budget deficit seems to give opportunities that will decrease the rate of climate change yet instead they go the opposite way on the matter. Btw, I do believe in climate change but I believe Humans are just a catalyst in a natural cycle the Earth has, however admittedly, speeding up the change of climate give little time to adapt, particulary when the pattern is super warm and then super cold, but meh, we survived the last ice age as cave men, i'm sure we can survive another.

Public Comments

1. They don't raise fuel tax because they get so much hassle from the road lobby and the motoring organisations and all the silly Brits who are addicted to cars and are so lazy they won't walk their kids the half mile to school. Furthermore the rail system is filled to capacity - currently carrying as many people as in 1928, although the amount of track has shrunk by 50%. The last thing the government wants is to spend lots of money building more lines and upgrading existiing ones
2. It seems to me that you would just remove a layer of bureaucracy by not taxing fuel to public busing that the government provides. I don't know that it will encourage driving cars since everyone paying taxes will pay for the fuel that the buses use. I think they should just stop spending so much but I live the US. They always want to find reasons to tax and avoid spending cuts.
3. In the UK Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty effectively single out motorists for additional taxation, on top of the VAT normally charged on goods and services. There are legitimate reasons why motorists might be singled out, to pay for road building for example. But the research note shows that motorists are taxed excessively, beyond a reasonable application of that standard: In 2008-09 motorists paid £30.2 billion in motoring taxes. In that year,1 the cost of road building was £9.1 billion and the so called social cost of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport was £3.2 billion. That implies motoring taxes were excessive by £17.9 billion. Even with cautious assumptions about the likely trajectory of road spending and emissions, by 2015-16 we can expect excessive taxation of motorists to reach £22.3 billion.
4. Because the people who raise the tax have to be reelected by the people who pay the tax?
5. Lets explode the myth about a deficit ,the politicians say we are in the red ,owe all this money, Who to?,hope its not the banks No matter what the global situation is government's will always tax people till they squeak because that's all they can do,they are not bothered about the cost of running a car because we pay for them,even if most of them are millionaires.
6. even better,why not scrap all taxation,all government rules,stop being slaves and wake up