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1.72 Currently, excise duties on petrol are levied
either at an ad valorem rate on final pump price before
GST, or at a prescribed floor rate, whichever is higher.
If petrol prices rise, the duties go up correspondingly.
This adds to the burden on businesses and motorists.
To address this, I have decided to impose excise duties
on petrol at a specific rate instead, so that the duties
no longer fluctuate with oil prices. This takes effect
from today.
1.73 The new specific duty rates for various grades
of petrol will be set at the current floor rates of
the petrol excise duties, taking into account the Off-Budget
reductions which are in force, so that there will be
no increase in petrol duties after 30 June 2003.
1.74 This will cost the government about $60 million
annually. Details of the changes are in Annex
A.
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