On the relative price of gasoline worldwide, I do believe it is mostly all a
matter of taxation.
Europe and much of the world seem to tax gasoline heavily in order to fund
road construction and/or maintenance. Here in the states, we fund those
things with a combination of fuel tax and taxes originating elsewhere. The
level of taxation on gasoline is a factor of politics, too. Keeping pump
prices low seems to be a goal of most politicians who want to stay in
office.
Who pays more for gasoline, the USA or the rest of the world? The news
programs always seem to temper announcement of high US gas prices with
comparisons to the rest of the world: "Still so much cheaper here!". I
think if you factor in all the taxes, both on gasoline and via other
tributaries, it probably all evens out. Oil has a global market. Surely
the US pays the world competitive price per barrel for oil, so the price per
gallon of gasoline should be roughly the same worldwide. Any difference
should be attributable to differences in taxation and localized
transportation costs.
I may be completely FOS on this point. Others here know for more than I do
on this subject.
--Chris
"Middle aged guy in an Old Man's car"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Mitchell" <paul@cynthesys.co.za>
To: <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 4:37 AM
Subject: Fuel price perspective
> To give some perspective on the fuel story, this being an international
> list, I filled my TR6 yesterday down here in Cape Town, South Africa. I
> filled it with leaded 97 octane, which is sold at every petrol station,
> unlike in the UK, for example, where places that sell leaded fuel are
> few & far between. For my South African petrol, I paid 5.56 Rands per
> litre, which at today's exchange rate is $3.33 per US gallon. I know for
> a fact that UK petrol prices make South African ones look very cheap -
> the cost in the UK is roughly double what it is here.
>
> An additional thing that might be of interest is that South African fuel
> prices are set by the government, with 2 levels: one for internal
> provinces (cf. states), and a cheaper rate for the coastal ones, hence
> fuel is cheaper in Cape Town than Johannesburg.
>
> So maybe you guys in the US don't have it quite so bad - you still have
> some of the cheapest fuel in the world, for reasons I'll leave for
> another time.
>
> There are some good things about being in the southern hemisphere - it's
> the first day of spring. Time to take the hard top off!
>
> Happy motoring
>
> Paul
> 75 TR6, Cape Town
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