Recent articles in the Kansas City Star has shown that while retailers buy wholesale fuel at a standard temperature of 60 degrees, they can warm it up, causing it to expand. In this manner, they sell a much higher volume than they buy, plus once it gets into you tank, it cools back down reducing its volume. The result is you buy more fuel, more often.
In Sunday's KC Star, they also show how they get to keep the extra taxes paid on the expended fuel. Federal Highway Trust Fund taxes are collected at the wholesale level, not the retail, and an IRS loophole allows the stations to keep the extra tax money. In 1990, a study showed that of the tax money collected, less than 17% is actually spent on road repair and construction, but that is based on tax money actually received by the government. wonder how much less that figure would be when including what is never paid in?
So, what is the temperature of the fuel you bought recently?
2006-11-13
19:07:33
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5 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Economics