Health implications of putting value added tax on fuel

BMJ 1994;309:1030-1031 (22 October)

Editorials

Health implications of putting value added tax on fuel

The American senator Hubert Humphrey said, "The moral test ofgovernment is how that government treats those who are in thedawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight oflife, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life- the sick, the needy, and the handicapped." By such criteria,putting value added tax (VAT) on fuel is a bad measure.

Almost three quarters of pensioners in Britain pay no incometax, yet virtually all pay VAT on their gas and electricitybills. Only if the government had added VAT to food or watercould it have increased the tax burden for an equivalent numberof households made up of elderly people.

The tax burden is not evenly distributed.¹ Although householdswith low incomes spend less on fuel than those with high incomes(spending on fuel being mainly related to the size of the . . . [Full text of this article]

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