Petrol hits £1 a litre

I am old enough to remember when petrol first hit £1 a gallon but today it reached £1 a litre. I thought it worth reminding everyone how that £1 is split.

This breakdown of the price of petrol is based on the assumption of a £1 per litre of petrol.

Petrol Fuel Duty - 50.35p

VAT (17.5%) - 14.9p

Refinery Petrol Costs - 31.75p

Forecourt Costs - 3p

Forecourt Profit - 2p


This means that the forecourt cost makes up 5%, the oil cost is around 32% and taxation around 63% of the total cost

Figures from here.

You could take a look at the BBC web site for this news. There you will see one of the most misleading graphics I have seen for years. The graphic showing what proportion of the £1 is made up of Retailer, Duty, VAT etc. The arts educated designer has split the drop of petrol into percentages by height which would be fair enough if the drop was straight sided but it isn't, it is drop shaped. So should the drop not be split by area. As it is VAT looks to make up about 5% by area. Do the BBC know nothing about statistical representations.