Ray Holloway, director of the RMIF’s Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) has called for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to cancel the 2 pence per litre fuel duty rise scheduled for April 1.

The PRA is co-signatory on a cross-industry letter to the Daily Telegraph that calls on Alistair Darling to cancel the fuel duty increase. This was announced in the last budget, but delayed until April.

Other co-signers on the letter include the Freight Transport Association (FTA), the Road Haulage Association (RHA), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), National Farmers Union (NFU), and the RAC Foundation.

Holloway believes that the fuel duty increase would be disastrous: "Increasing fuel tax would mean an immediate increase in prices for the consumer, and would almost certainly push a number of forecourt businesses out of business.

"The PRA will continue to push for a reduction in fuel duty, and at the very least the cancellation of the further increase of 2.35 pence per litre, representing 2 pence in excise duty plus VAT, planned in the 2008 budget."

Representatives from the Road Haulage Association and Freight Transport Association met with Darling today to stress the importance of abandoning plans to increase fuel duty.

Roger King, RHA chief executive, said: "The meeting with the Chancellor went well and we had a courteous hearing.

"We talked at length about the proposed 2 ppl increase and stressed that this should not go ahead on the grounds that Britain's road hauliers were already struggling to come to terms with the increase in world oil prices and tax increases.

"We had a very open conversation and no-one pulled any punches. The Chancellor made it clear that he could do no more than take note of what was being said prior to his Budget statement in March. The Chancellor listened attentively to what we had to say but ultimately, of course, it is his final decision that willl count. But he will make it in the knowlege that the road transport industry has given him the facts as we see them."