CALLS for a reduction in fuel duty will be considered for debate by the new government after thousands of Islanders signed an online petition.
The petition, launched by ATF Fuels director Jonathan Best earlier this year, said consumers were facing a cost-of-living crisis ‘on many fronts’ and called for the introduction of an ‘immediate’ fuel-duty cut of 2.5p per litre.
It has now gained more than 5,000 signatures, meaning it has passed the threshold for consideration for debate by the States Assembly.
Mr Best said: ‘We are pleased to have gotten the support we have received and hope for a positive outcome when it is debated.’
At the time of writing, there was no confirmed debate date, although the next States sitting is scheduled for Tuesday 13 September.
Mr Best said it was ‘unknown’ how the wholesale fuel market might look by the time the petition could be put before the Assembly.
Motoring costs – as well as price hikes in the housing and energy sectors – were named as some of the main factors driving the growing rate of inflation in Statistics Jersey’s latest Retail Prices Index report, which showed that Islanders were experiencing the biggest rise in the cost of living for three decades.
Mr Best’s petition received a ministerial response from the previous Council of Ministers – issued when it passed 1,000 signatures – which stated that fuel duty reductions were a ‘blunt way of delivering help to struggling households’ that might be less dependent upon private transport than those on higher-incomes.
It added that the success of any reductions made would be reliant on them being ‘reflected in the pump price’, and instead argued that an increase in ‘targeted interventions’ would be more effective at reducing the impact of growing costs on lower-income households.
