Govt rakes in $10b in petrol GST - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News

Motorists have paid more than $10 billion in GST on petrol since the tax was introduced six years ago and the annual GST revenue from petrol sales is set to exceed $2 billion for the first time, an independent analysis has revealed.
The GST raised from petrol sales is already twice the amount the government said it would raise when the tax on goods and services was introduced, the Herald Sun newspaper reports.
At the same time, reduced exercise on petrol - the purported trade-off - has cost the federal government only $4.6 billion in lost revenue since July 1, 2000.
The revelations come amid soaring petrol prices, with Melbourne motorists paying an average of $1.37 for unleaded fuel at the bowser. Of that figure, 38 cents went to excise and 13 cents the GST.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello said all GST revenue went to the states and challenged Labor premiers to use the windfall to give motorists a discount on petrol prices.
The tax figures have come from an analysis of budget and industry statistics that federal Labor's Kelvin Thomson commissioned from the Parliamentary Library and provided to the Herald Sun.
The library based its calculations on budget figures and data from the Bureau of Statistics and the independent FUELtrac.
The analysis showed yearly GST revenue from petrol sales is set to crash through $2 billion for the first time.
Annual GST on petrol has risen from $1.4 billion in 2001-02 to an estimated $2.1 billion for 2005-06 - a 50 per cent increase.
Revenue from excise has been static at just over $7 billion a year after the federal government abolished six-monthly excise indexation and cut fuel excise by 1.5 cents a litre in 2001 following public outrage at rising petrol prices. Excise has since been a flat 38 cents a litre.
© 2006 AAP