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Arabia
Saudi Arabia calls on oil consumer countries to cut taxes
2005-11-22
Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue to provide "enough" oil supplies, but called on leading consumer countries to cut taxes on petroleum products to alleviate hikes in world prices. "The policy of the kingdom is based on reaching a reasonable and fair price for oil and to provide enough supplies to all the consumers," King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz said. "But all the efforts of the producing countries will not bear fruits if they are not met with a positive position by main consumer states," he said at the opening of the permament seat of the International Energy Forum in Riyadh. "These states should alleviate the ordeal of their citizens by cutting taxes on petroleum products when prices increase," he said.
Posted by:Fred

#21  Excluding retail excise & (in some states) sales taxes at the pump, direct and indirect regulatory compliance costs are probably a bigger cost component in the oil industry than are taxes.
Posted by: AzCat   2005-11-22 23:37  

#20  #5 This irks me. Neither republicans nor democrats *ever* suggest that when oil prices are high, the gas tax should be lowered. Here are the numbers: US federal gas tax: 18.4 cents per gallon.

The State taxes:

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp
In my State, this amounts to 36 cents per gallon tax!
Posted by Anonymoose 2005-11-22 10:06|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top

The taxes you mentioned are just what you see at the f***ing PUMP! The gov't taxes it at the well head (both oil and natural gas by the way), at the refinery, at the distributor, then the pump. I've probably missed a step or two, but believe me the gov't won't miss any.
Posted by: Besoeker   2005-11-22 19:32  

#19  Saudi Arabia is too rich to be a proper recipient of foreign aid, no matter in what form it takes.

Straight to the bottom line, Ptah!

Time to cut off the Saudis like some someone doing who's 40MPH in the fast lane. Our BILLIONS in aid have gotten us nothing more than the 9-11 nineteen a thumb in the eye. Let the royals pay their own way and start sharing the pain. There's no chance of them switching military suppliers after all the expensive kit we've sold them. If these oil-soaked Midases can't kick down, they can go f&%k a rock.
Posted by: Zenster   2005-11-22 18:34  

#18  Or if you're really frightened by the big oil companies, you might forego your big screen TeeVee or PB360 and buy into one.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-11-22 17:09  

#17  BK-I can't believe I'm in agreement with you on this one! Please don't tell anyone on the other coast! Now I feel guilty and have this urge to go to Sun Valley and go skiiing!
Posted by: 49 pan   2005-11-22 15:44  

#16  There's a cardinal rule of supply and demand that is involved here: If you want less of something, tax it. If you want more of something, subsidize it. There are calls to increase gas taxes in order to artifically accellerate conservation, which would depress demand, and consequently prices. A cut in taxes is an effective subsidy, and so would maintain demand, and prices with that.

Saudi Arabia is too rich to be a proper recipient of foreign aid, no matter in what form it takes.
Posted by: Ptah   2005-11-22 15:40  

#15  Yeah, the world. Ask the Europeans about how much Petrol is taxed per liter. Scary stuff.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2005-11-22 14:29  

#14  Gentlemen, you've all missed an important point, they didn't tell the United States to cut taxes, they told the world to cut taxes.

Headline reads "Oil Consumer Countries"
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2005-11-22 13:57  

#13  The producers pass their tax burden on to the consumer in the form of higher costs.

It's not quite that straightforward. If you consider production within the US you're talking about tens of thousands of small and micro-producers who sell to wholesalers based on spot pricing. They have *NO* control over how much they're paid, they can merely choose to sell or not at the current market price.

Taxes on the consumer side are significantly lower than those on producers. E.g., last year my folks paid an state & federal taxes at an aggregate rate of 51% on their production and that's *after* the state lopped off nearly 10% in mineral severence taxes on the primary gross production. $0.35-0.40 / gallon is dirt cheap compared to that.
Posted by: AzCat   2005-11-22 13:57  

#12  High gasoline cost to the consumer - whether through high taxes or high profits to producing governments, or high profits to oil companies, or high costs of production - will all lead to the apparantly desired outcome of reduced dependence on oil. Until the public - consumer or investor - truly believes high prices are 'here to stay', there will not be a major shift in auto buying patterns or development of alternative, more costly sources (e.g. oil shale).
Posted by: Glenmore   2005-11-22 13:42  

#11  Same for NY. Ugh.
Posted by: lotp   2005-11-22 13:07  

#10  California's tax is around 32 cents. Factor in the federal taxes and it goes up to around 50 cents.
Posted by: Pappy   2005-11-22 12:06  

#9  "suggest that when oil prices are high, the gas tax should be lowered...In my State, this amounts to 36 cents per gallon tax!"

Oh it gets better. Those gas taxes are PER GALLON, and with the number of gallons sold down due to people conserving due to high gas prices, tax REVENUES are down. They can't have that. Guess what's about to happen. States are planning to RAISE per gallon gas taxes to replace "much needed lost revenue" as well as "to further encourage people to conserve" And somehow, as reported in the media, this will be all the fault of "BIG OIL"

Posted by: Dave   2005-11-22 11:52  

#8  In my State, this amounts to 36 cents per gallon tax!

Sounds like California.

Quite frankly, gas tax money funds too many other things besides transportation projects, so it's very unlikely any meaningful reduction would ever be in the works.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-11-22 11:46  

#7  The burden of a tax is shared between consumers and producers.

The producers pass their tax burden on to the consumer in the form of higher costs.

Posted by: BrerRabbit   2005-11-22 11:44  

#6  I know my home state (Georgia) cut the State tax on gasoline for like 30 days, and then extended it a little longer. I think it's now back being collected. The downside was, that it appeared that the stations weren't lowering the total price, but were keeping the money they normally collect for the State for themselves. Add to that Hurricane Katrina, and the so-called "gas crunch" (very small) about a week later, and people around Atlanta were going nuts for gas!
Posted by: BA   2005-11-22 10:11  

#5  This irks me. Neither republicans nor democrats *ever* suggest that when oil prices are high, the gas tax should be lowered.

Here are the numbers:

US federal gas tax: 18.4 cents per gallon.

The State taxes:

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

In my State, this amounts to 36 cents per gallon tax!

Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-11-22 10:06  

#4  boy are we screwed, the Saudies demonstrate once again how the Gasoline Addicted society of the USA ie: "higher civilization"is at the mercy of a totalitarian monarchy. ie : "lower civilization" We need to get off the Saudie/Exxon gasoline dole and figure out how to NOT be dependent on a culture that we share nothing in common with, except that we both LOVE money.
Posted by: bk   2005-11-22 10:00  

#3  The burden of a tax is shared between consumers and producers. The consumers bear more of the burden, the less responsive is demand, and producers, the less responsive is supply. While demand is not very responsive to price, I doubt that supply is, either. Higher taxes on oil might transfer wealth from producer countries to consumer countries. Such taxes can be made revenue neutral by reducing taxes on other sources of income.
Posted by: Curt Simon   2005-11-22 09:30  

#2  Translaeion, "We're going to keep prices good and high, you'll have to suffer losses in revenue, we won't"
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2005-11-22 08:05  

#1  Never expected to find myself in agreement with an official Saudi position.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2005-11-22 01:54  

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