Pump prices for gas are down, to the lowest it's been in months, but government's tax take is up. On Sunday, government reduced the price of fuel: premium gas is down from $9.26 to $9.08; regular is down from $8.96 to $8.81; and diesel is down from $7.01 to $6.78.
And while there's relief at the pump, don't be too happy, because GOB is still getting quite a bit more than its pound of flesh. Acquisition prices for fuel have dropped by 46 cents for premium, 48 cents for regular, and 59 cents for diesel. Calculate the difference between how much it's down at the pump and how much the suppliers' cost went down, and you'll see that government is the one that got the lion's share of this drop in acquisition prices. On premium fuel, your price went down 18 cents, but government's tax take in RRD went up 28 cents. On regular fuel, your price went down 15 cents, and government's RRD charge went up 23 cents, and on diesel fuel, your price went down 23 cents, and government's take went up 36 cents.
It's a long established practice and just about the oldest game in the revenue cook book...but it's a policy the IMF recently frowned upon in its September report in which it urged government to stop the price meddling, fix the RRD take, and simply pass on all decreases and increases.
