Discuss Whether Indirect Taxes on Petrol and Diesel Fuel in the Uk Should Be Reduced.

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Negative Externality [18] Discuss whether indirect taxes on petrol and diesel fuel in the UK should be reduced. Petrol and Diesel are both demerit goods as they cause pollution when consumed. For example, in the case of vehicles, this pollution is produced in the form of CO2. However, both Petrol and Diesel are relatively inelastic goods, especially in rural areas as people are dependant on private transportation. As the costs of consuming Petrol and Diesel are not fully taken into account by the consumer, the difference between the social costs and private costs results in a negative externality. Negative Externalities occur when an economics activity affects third parties; those not directly involved in the making of a decision. As producers are only interested in maximising profits; they only take into account private costs and benefits that arise from their decisions. Therefore they would supply a higher amount than optimum that would result in an overproduction at Q1. As the producer creating the externality does not take it into account and the consumer does not fully pay for the resulting externalities, market inefficiencies result in the form of market failure. The social costs imposed upon third parties can be alleviated by the imposition of an indirect tax on Petrol and Diesel which will in turn increase the costs of producers (P1->P2) and discourage production, causing supply to shift to the left (Q1->Q2). This occurs as the indirect taxes increase the costs of production, hence decreasing the motive to produce. However, as Petrol and Diesel are inelastic goods, a majority of the said indirect taxes are imposed on the consumers and not the producers. As shown in Diagram 2, the consumer burden of tax is greater than that of a producer as price increases due to the irresponsiveness of demand to changes in price. Therefore the effectiveness of
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