Petrol tax relief plan scrapped

The excise taxes on petrol, lpg (liquefied petroleum gas) and diesel will not go down despite action from gas station owners and the opposition in Parliament. They insisted on the plan to cut excise tax down, because petrol stations in the border region with Germany and Belgium are struggling. The branch organization argued that the government is only losing money on the excise tax hike. State secretary for Finance, Eric Wiebes, is not planning on pulling back the excise tax hike imposed earlier this year. The excises on diesel and lpg went up with seven cents per liter. Back in March, Wiebes supplied a report about the excise tax hike, concluding that the controversial increase was supplying money to the state. Later today, Wiebes will present an extensive report about the high excise taxes and the consequences that these have had on the border region.