Diesel goes above £2 a litre at some local Tyrone fuel stations

DIESEL prices at some service stations in Tyrone have increased over night going above £2 a litre.

Yesterday saw the largest daily increase to diesel prices in UK history, with an increase of five pence.

This means the average price to fill a car up with a tank of diesel is just below £90.

The UK average price for diesel is still just short of £1.70 a litre, but could increase even more with the average price for a barrel of oil surging across global stock exchanges.

In the Republic, the Irish government has taken the decision to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel temporarily by 20c a litre for diesel, and 15c for petrol.

The move will cut the cost of a 60-litre tank of petrol by €12 (£10) and diesel by €9 (£7.50).

The Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe TD, said that things could get worse in the ‘medium and long-term’, and some people and businesses will feel the impact.

The Minister said, “These temporary reductions in excise are expected to reduce the cost of a fill of a 60 litre tank by €12 for petrol and €9 for diesel.

“Excise duty is an important revenue stream for the government, and collected over €5.8billion last year, with over €2bn of that coming from fuel taxes. The measure announced today will reduce this by €320million.

“It is important that we are clear – the government is acting now with this excise measure, to respond to the price rises we have seen to date, but also in anticipation of the further price rises we expect to see over the short and medium term.

“The causes of these price pressures are not within our control.

“The government has limited resources, and has responded to help to ease the impact of these price increases, but we cannot cushion citizens and businesses from the entire impact.”