HC Deb 19 July 2001 vol 372 cc377-8W
32. Mr. Plaskitt

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what fiscal measures he is taking to promote the use of cleaner road fuels. [3356]

Mr. Boateng

The Government have shown that they are keen to stimulate the development of viable alternative fuels that offer environmental benefits over current conventional fuels and they launched their Green Fuel Challenge in November last year. In the March Budget, we reduced the duty on road fuel gases by the equivalent of a further 3 pence per litre and announced that duty on these gases will not be increased in real terms until 2004 at the earliest. We also announced that duty on biodiesel would be cut in Budget 2002, to 20 pence per litre below the then ULSD duty rate. We also legislated in the last Finance Bill to provide for duty reductions or exemptions for pilot projects covering more environmentally friendly fuels.

Furthermore, over the last year duty differentials in favour of ultra-low sulphur petrol (ULSP) have achieved almost complete conversion of the UK unleaded petrol market to ULSP, in the same way that earlier duty incentives had achieved conversion of the UK diesel market to ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD).