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FTA Chief Economist Simon Chapman says, ‘At a time of great uncertainty in the oil market it makes sense for the Chancellor to use the Budget to inject a little stability into UK oil prices by withdrawing his traditional threat to increase prices later in the year.‘Every 1p per litre added to the price of diesel adds £140 million to industry’s overall operating costs. The Chancellor already takes £4.2 billion per year in diesel duty and lorry VED from heavy goods vehicles out of a total of £43.5 billion from all road users.‘The Government’s tax take from road users, and from industry in particular, is excessive and continues to generate severe problems for the UK transport industry and is over seven times what is spent on the transport infrastructure. The UK transport industry is paying a premium price for using the UK roads network – sadly the congested network does not provide a premium product.’Duty on diesel in the UK is 47p per litre against a European average of just 22p per litre, generating very substantial problems for the UK domestic industry in competition against foreign vehicles working on cheap European fuel. Around one in eight of the heaviest vehicles on UK roads now comes from overseas.Source: FTA