UK's Brown Says Won't Raise Car Fuel Tax
Date: 24-Apr-06
Country: UK
Petrol prices are expected to reach fresh highs next week after crude oil surged above US$75 dollars a barrel in New York trading on Friday.
Brown told BBC radio that tackling climate change was an ethical as well as an economic issue but said a balance had to be found between the needs of the environment and the British economy.
He said he was "not going to raise the price of petrol at this point, when oil prices are actually achieving the same effect that a rise in taxation would have achieved, and that is to incentivise people to move to more fuel efficient ways of doing things.
"You have to make a balanced judgement about the needs of the economy and the needs of the environment and the protection of individual citizens."
Brown has held petrol duties steady since 1999.
"To freeze fuel duty at a time of rising oil prices is the right decision," he said.
Green issues have shot to the top of the political agenda ahead of local elections on May 4.
On Friday, Conservative leader David Cameron pledged to scrap the government's Climate Change Levy on industry's use of energy and replace it with a more efficient system.
But Brown said the levy was "rapidly changing the behaviour of business to the benefit of the environment."
Brown, who is in Washington for international finance talks, on Friday called for OPEC to increase oil output to rein in prices.