Elsie Adamo
WHILE average Australians are looking forward to getting some relief at the petrol bowser following a Federal budget announcement this week, transport companies are less enthusiastic.
As part of the Budget measures announced on Tuesday night, the 44.2 cents per litre tax on petrol will be halved, saving 22 cents per litre for anyone filling up their car in the next six months.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be keeping a watchful eye on petrol stations to make sure the savings are being passed on to consumers.
While the transport industry will also get this saving, cuts to other rebates will mean that they will be saving much less than the average consumer.
The scheme will cost $5.6 billion over the next six months, but $2.9 billion will be saved by the Government in cuts to fuel tax credits for industries such as mining, agriculture and transport.
Ray Scott Group managing director Ashley Scott said their team had estimated they will only be saving about 4 cents per litre, five times less than the average consumer.
“We usually get a fuel rebate, and they have dropped the fuel rebate in lieu of the tax cut,” Mr Scott said.
“The transport industry is not going to see any real advantage at all.”
Mr Scott said the move will mean transport companies will not be able to pass on any freight savings to customers.
“At the end of the day it is really not going to help things like grocery bills because the transport companies have still got to cart it, so you are still going to be paying for it there,” he said.
While it may help families fuel bills, Mr Scott said more should have been done to help out industry so more cost of living savings could be passed on to the public.
“The general public does use a lot of fuel, but the transport and commercial businesses use a lot more than anyone else,” he said.
“It would have been a huge cost to the Government to lose all of it.”
Other big-budget spending measures announced on Tuesday included a $420 cost of living tax offset for low-and-middle-income earners of which there are about 68,700 in the local electorate of Barker, along with an additional $250 cost of living payment for the 24,000 pensioners in the region.
Councils located in Barker will share in an additional $8.8 million for the local roads and community infrastructure program.
An additional $10m has been committed to the South Australian rural roads package, which in part will go to local highways.
The region will also share in national projects such as $18.5 million for headspace centres in regional areas and $1.3 billion to improve mobile coverage across regional transport routes.
