|
Well the point I was trying to make is the ineffectual intervention that our Governments conduct in dealing with this matter.
The "body" responsible to determine what is apparent to even a casual onlooker does nothing other than make noises as if it is doing something and clearly it does nothing other than wring its hands.
Excuses instead of action.
There is little support given by the Government, and more important no political will,....one can assume this as I have never noticed any bite marks on any of the parties who have some control on the pump price... lots of talk when appropriate but the price still seems to follow a course that suggests exploitation of a captive market.
One wonders why if parity comes from the price set in Singapore why news reports always quote the price of a barrel of West Texas Crude...
Now who do I think of when I hear West Texas???
I can not recall ever hearing ..the price of a barrel of oil in Singapore is such and such..
Simply removing the double taxation on petrol would see some relief..after all having paid the excise we still pay GST..I can handle the concept of tax but a tax on a tax seems greedy even for the Government.
Can anyone put me straight and tell me that I an wrong when I say that approximately half the price at the pump is tax??? Is there someone who can be precise and identify the exact proportion? or am I so close to the mark that the difference between my perception and the truth is irrelevant.
I have been lead to believe the price of a barrel of oil contains a 20% component that has to do with esentially "world fear" and of course this says merely that traders are capitalising simply by moving their money from gold to oil and back again...why do we need "traders" to inflate the price of a commodity that will never be left sitting on the shelf.
The concept of supply and demand like so many "economic" terms relates to concepts written about in text books...supply and demand is something that takes place in a "free" market where it is the "free market" that determines price ..the market in those text books consists of suppliers and buyers on equal footing..the main component is the ability of the buyer to chose an alternative..as there is no alternative to petrol why talk nonsence and say what we have is a text book "supply and demand" theory playing out its part in the real world...
so it is nonsense to use the term "market" where at the top you have traders who "trade" they only respond to what they expect the market may do..they only respond to the concept of..what will the market stand..or put bluntly how much can we charge and get away with it...one would not have to be too bright to realise that one has a captive market when it comes to oil and that you will never get caught out holding too much supply...
the economic principles that we read about in our text books on economices are simply principles that would opperate in a free market...as we do not have a free market why even think for a moment "supply and demand" principles have any bearing upon each other..supply and demand in this context really means to "them" what can we get away with.... it is a case of folk using terms that emote a feeling that justice prevails when of course it does not.
The Government is bent on seeing "competition" in the telecomunications industry yet sits back and does nothing to present a similar approach with petrol.
The fact that super markets can offer a 4 cent discount means the Government has abdicated at least that much of price control...and allowing such a practice by super markets is not in the spirit of reducing monopolies it is in keeping with anti competition...so I claim the Governement is indulging in hypocracy.
A little relief would be to stop taxing it twice... remove GST...so instead of paying $50 dollars to top up your tank you would be paying only $45 (approx)...further relief in reducing tax could be considered given the high proportion of the pump price is indeed for revenue...
I dont care what the prices are in the UK..that is their problem..and never will I accept that because something is that way overseas that we much follow the path they have set for themselves...
AND who in the petrol industry are doing it tuff...I think the profits achieved by all involved suggest it is simply a matter of a captive market being exploited because they are the victims of a monopoly environment one in which sadly our Government is one of the main players.
The Government is always concerned with inflation well ask yourself how the price of fuel impacts upon the cost of production... but they find that there is a better way to manage inflation..fiscal policy...sounds so neat doesnt it...but all that means is they let the lenders charge a higher rent on their money to send a marginal business to the list of workers to put some poor devil out of work...and all your nice economic rationalism wont change the reality of what increases in interest rates does to a work force.
It comes from what they call in the text books...the Optimum unemployement policy..this is an economic approach where it is predetermined how many one needs to keep out of work so the rest can be comfortable...
The current situation is unjust and those who have it within their power to act sit on their hands.
alex
|