Feature: Australian motorists to face reinstated fuel tax at petrol bowsers

SYDNEY, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australian motorists are likely to pay more to fill their cars' tanks from Thursday as the federal government reinstates its full excise tax on petrol.

The government cut that tax in March, at a time when petrol prices, hard hit by a range of factors such as supply shortages brought about the war in Ukraine, had soared to well above two Australian dollars (about 1.30 U.S. dollars) per liter.

The return of the full tax on petrol came at a time when Australians are already confronting an array of financial burdens including a string of home loan interest rate rises and inflation at its highest level in more than two decades.

Those costs of living are proving a challenge to everyday workers such as Shawn who lives in the Western Australian (WA) capital of Perth.

"Fifty bucks doesn't get you much nowadays," Shawn told Xinhua, adding that he believed his salary was not keeping pace with inflation.

Besides driving from site to site for his job, Shawn helps his wife Lulu with her tourism business, which is just recovering from last year's border closure brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple owns a 12-seater minibus and on weekends they drive groups of Chinese tourists to scenic spots along the coast of WA.

"We were lucky that we had those discounted fuel prices, it helped a lot with recovering our business," he said.

However, as that is coming to an end, Shawn says that Lulu worries she will have to cut into her profits as it is important to keep the cost down for her customers.

"It's not so easy to just tell those tourists that the cost of living has gone up, and so we need to charge you more ... people won't accept that."

Sydney tradesman Justin shares similar opinions telling Xinhua that the price of petrol will be yet "another burden on an already stretched budget."

"I need to drive to work and pick up supplies, so this extra cost, combined with increased material costs from inflation, will make it difficult to make ends meet," Justin said.

The nation's price watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has already warned motorists that they could pay an extra 25 Australian cents per liter (about 16 U.S. cents) with the reintroduction of the full tax.

Making such predictions, however, is complicated by global conditions such as the price fall for wholesale unleaded petrol and diesel fuel in recent months.

John Quiggin, an economics professor at the University of Queensland, told Xinhua that he expected "recent declines in the world price of oil will offset the end of the petrol tax discount."

Regarding whether the price will go up afterwards, Quiggin was hesitant to make any big claims, saying "the absurdity of the fuel price cycle makes it difficult to make concrete predictions."

Meanwhile, the ACCC has written to petrol wholesalers and retailers warning they will take action if anyone "makes misleading statements on price movements or if there is evidence of anti-competitive behavior (such as price collusion)."

It has also advised motorists to "shop around" and compare fuel prices and said that independent petrol station owners tended to be cheaper than major-brand stations.