OIL  SNAKE SALESMAN

When you are stretching the family budget and filling up your bottomless petrol tank at the service station this weekend  think of the name Frank Topham.

He’s the spokesman for Caltex. He doesn’t think you pay enough for petrol already even when it nudges $1.50 a litre.  In fact he thinks, and his bosses think, that you should be paying an extra ten cents a litre as punishment. A 10c carbon tax.

Mr Topham says: ‘Every time  motorists filled up at a service station, there would be awareness of the carbon tax, encouraging motorists to think about driving less, taking public transport or buying a smaller car when possible.’

Forget the fact that the Rudd Government has ruled out a carbon tax. And  I guess we should ignore the fact that Caltex made a profit last year of $400 million.  And ignore the fact that the major oil companies manipulate prices in ways that seem to have no bearing on world oil prices. I was going to say they go up and down like a whore’s drawers but that’s no longer true. They go up and stay up.

Remember, not so long ago when it was news if the price of petrol crept towards one dollar a litre? Now it would be front page news if it ever slid down to $1.20.

 Prices jump as you literally put your hand on the pump at the old price. Funny that. The petrol in the underground tank wasn’t suddenly replaced by more expensive gas. As a caller pointed out the other day when a supermarket increases the price on a product they have to, by law, sell the old stock at the old price. Why doesn’t that apply to petrol?

And the government, Labor or Liberal isn’t exempt here. If the new Labor Government is genuinely concerned about high petrol prices then cut the current 38 cents per litre excise by say five cents immediately. And even before that stop Canberra’s double dipping. When we pay GST at the bowser we are already paying a tax on a tax. At $1.50 a litre we should be paying GST not on $1.50 but on $1.12. The true cost after the excise of 38 cents is deducted.  It would save motorists only a few cents personally but millions of dollars nationally.

So before Caltex decides to put it’s oily hands on yet another ten cents a litre  maybe Mr. Topham should remember his name. Motorists loathe the greedy oil companies so much they may be tempted to top him.

Friday, February 29, 2008

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008