Taken from http://www.whatgas.com/data/journalists.html
Fuel Duty and VAT (back to top)
In the UK there is a fuel duty that is applied to all Hydrocarbon fuels, including unleaded petrol, diesel, LPG, bio diesel, bio ethanol and other fuels that are used in cars.
The rate of the fuel duty is usually set during the budget, and consist of an additional tax that is applied to the petrol before it is sold. This fuel duty is applied before VAT, so whenever the fuel duty rate is raised, additional VAT is placed on top of it.
In the March 2011 budget the government announced that it was reducing the fuel duty by 1p per litre, instead of increasing it by an estimated 4p (inflation +1p). To fund this reduction they have increased the tax of oil companies from 20% to 32% in order to create a 'fair fuel stabiliser'. Time will tell what this mean exactly, but with the oil companies paying more tax, will the price of petrol just go even higher???
Type of Fuel Total cost at pump Fuel duty VAT %tax
Unleaded 132.7p 57.95p 22.12p 60%
Taken from http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp
Taxes/gallon of unleaded is 12% (shown in a nice graphical representation of a gas pump on the right side of screen)
We in the US are not responsible for another government's huge taxation of fuel.
So if the total unleaded price in the US increase say 33% higher than 1 year ago (which they are)this means Oil Company receives a much larger profit than they will when total unleaded price increases by 33% in the UK. This is part of why we complain because this makes it appear as though the Oil Companies are spewing rhetoric that the US unleaded is sooo much cheaper than the rest of the world and that we need to be "brought more in line" with the rest of the world, but basically they are just jacking up profits quickly.
Again Just my opinions based on information I could find.