Increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel from next week does not make sense, according to the Consumers Assocation of Ireland. 

Petrol will increase by six cent per litre while the cost of diesel will rise by five cent per litre from next Thursday. 

The Consumers Association says the increases will be added to transport costs for food which will only increase the cost of living further. 

Consumer Association Spokesperson Michael Kilcoyne told Newstalk any rise in the cost of petrol and diesel will only make goods in the shops more expensive. 

“If this fuel is being used for carrying product to the supermarket, then the only one that can pay for it is the consumer,” he said. “The consumer is going to have their goods increased so that whoever is transporting it can recover the costs.” 

“It means there will be further inflation as a result of this.” 

Budget surplus

Mr Kilcoyne also said the increase doesn’t make sense in the wake of Government predictions that were will be an €8 billion budget surplus.  

“At a time when government talks about the amount of revenue they have, they again go after the hard-pressed consumer to extract further taxations of them,” he said. 

“I would call on [the Government] to defer this to at least the end of the year.” 

Increased excise duty on diesel and petrol will most affect people in rural areas that lack public transport, according to Mr Kilcoyne.  

The Government cut excise duty in March 2022 as fuel prices soared due to the war in Ukraine, but announced they would revert the cuts a phased basis from Thursday.