diesel now 99.9p at local BP garage - 2 questions

[Janh]

1. is this really due to Katrina/world oil prices or merely profiteering?

2. will they have to get new price display boards with space for the extra digit before they can go up to 100.9?

1. probably. but then the way world oil prices work has a lot to do with profiteering anyway.

2. well hopefully they'll just drop the stupid .9 bit and be honest with a round 101. they could just put some insulation tape over the .

not sure about 1 but my guess on 2 is that they will start pricing in smaller volumes (100ml diesel anyone?) and manage to increase the price at the same time!

its ridiculous isnt it...they do blame it on the tornado etc but maybe just oportunistic time to stupidly inflate the petrol price...when i bought my car a year ago it cost me £33 to fill the tank couple of days ago it was £45

(more than 50% of the cost of a litre is tax/duty, isn't it? So a 10% rise in oil prices should only put the price up by 4p-5p?)

Hi, SP! I was wondering if they'd drop the decimal.

I have a couple of VAT receipts from June hanging around waiting for DH to put in at work and it was only about 86.9 then.

btw diesel is 10something point 9 at our local BP. They seem to have a secret fourth digit that was there all along.

Wasnt just me wondering about how they were going to fit in the . on the signs then

Did the Iraq war have any impact on fuel prices?

Just found this:

Duty and tax account for about 75% of the pump price. For example, figure 1 shows the typical breakdown of a litre of unleaded petrol at the average UK major brand pump price of 80.9p (2004 average). Of this, 59.3p is duty and tax,16.3p represents the cost of product and 5.3p is available to the oil company/retailer to cover all the costs of supply from a refinery through to the filling station operation, as well as their profit.

(From here )

So if oil went up 100% from a baseline price of 80.9p a litre it would only put 16.3p on top!!!

Profiteering bastards. It's not as if they don't make huge profits anyway, is it?

btw have been trying to post this for about 30 mins - MN having probs today or is it just me? (I did have to reboot in the end...!)

Anyone tried converting to vegetable oil? Stinks a bit but works apparently.

Oh I've read about that, www!

apparently there is somewhere in brighton that will do the conversion. very interesting - although you still have to buy special oil and pay tax on it i think

here, in the Guardian

ah but these are the people I heard interviewed about it, Centre for Alternative Technology

anyone got a toyota prius? sounds sensible to me. half electricity half gas and no congestion charge to pay...

You have to submit returns and pay duty (reduced rate) if you convert vegetable oil for own use.

The Prius is currently a must-have for US celebrities apparently - see here . (Would love to see Arnie squeezed into one!)

It's a bit dear though - starts at £17,500. Time there was a cheaper/smaller alternative, I love the idea.

Never off-duty, Tink?

Oh tinks, I know, C&E actually called Radio 4 and made sure they read it out. There are even 2 different types of duty for veg oil

but how would they find out? or does everyone have to be honest - good old blighty

Here in NZ diesel has passed the $1 mark (about 2.5 dollars to your pound), most of the petrol stations didn't have enough 1's to cope with using one for diesel as well as petrol.

How are garages allowed to get away with the .9p? If you bought 2 litres only, how would they charge you for it? Can you imagine any other industry getting away with it? Tescos charging 72.9p for a loaf of bread...

Every other country still seems to manage to charge less for diesel than petrol. Why are we always ripped off in the UK?

WWW, is that The Taxman by the Kinks

Or am i being ignorant?