Finance Act 1996

4 Rates of duty and rebate

(1) In section 6(1) of the [1979 c. 5.] Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979, for “£0.3614” (duty on light oil) and “£0.3132” (duty on heavy oil) there shall be substituted “£0.3912” and “£0.3430”, respectively.

(2) In section 8(3) of that Act (duty on road fuel gas), for “£0.3314” there shall be substituted “£0.2817”.

(3) In section 11(1) of that Act (rebate on heavy oil), for “£0.0166” (fuel oil) and “£0.0214” (gas oil) there shall be substituted “£0.0181” and “£0.0233”, respectively.

(4) In subsection (1) of section 13A of that Act (rebate on unleaded petrol), for “the rate of £0.0482 a litre” there shall be substituted “the rate specified in subsection (1A) below”; and after that subsection there shall be inserted the following subsections—

“(1A) The rate of rebate shall be—

(a) £0.0150 a litre in the case of higher octane unleaded petrol; and

(b) £0.0482 a litre in any other case.

(1B) For the purposes of this section unleaded petrol is “higher octane” if—

(a) its research octane number is not less than 96 and its motor octane number is not less than 86;

(b) it is delivered for home use as petrol which satisfies the condition set out in paragraph (a) above;

(c) it is delivered for home use as petrol which is suitable to be used as fuel for engines for which leaded petrol is suitable by virtue of being leaded; or

(d) it is delivered for home use under such a description, or in such a manner, as tends, in the circumstances, to suggest that it is—

(i) petrol satisfying the condition set out in paragraph (a) above; or

(ii) petrol suitable to be used as fuel for engines for which leaded petrol is suitable by virtue of being leaded.

(1C) The method of testing unleaded petrol for ascertaining, for the purposes of this section, its research octane number or motor octane number shall be such as the Commissioners may direct.”

(5) In subsection (2) of that section (meaning of “unleaded”), for the words from “or, if” onwards there shall be substituted “; and petrol is “leaded” for the purposes of this section if it is not unleaded.”

(6) In section 14(1) of that Act (rebate on light oil for use as furnace fuel), for “£0.0166” there shall be substituted “£0.0181”.

(7) Subsections (1) to (3) and (6) above shall be deemed to have come into force at 6 o'clock in the evening of 28th November 1995; and subsection (4) above shall come into force on 15th May 1996.