(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

Scrutineers of public spending say B.C. drivers, outside of the major centres, are being charged one-third of the cost of gasoline in tax.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation say when drivers buy gasoline in parts of B.C. such as Kamloops or the Okanagan, assuming it was purchased at $1.98 per litre – 62 cents of that is tax, according to a report from the federation.

It’s even higher in Metro Vancouver and Victoria, where drivers pay 75 and 67 cents of tax on the same amount of fuel, the federation says.

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Drivers in both of these larger centres have to pay an additional transit tax, which is 18.5 cents per litre in Vancouver and 5.5 cents in Victoria.

The federation says drivers in Vancouver are paying the most tax on fuel anywhere in Canada, and those taxes add more than $50 onto the cost of filling a minivan, the federation says. 

Those in Victoria are paying the second highest taxes on fuel in the country. People in Montreal are paying the third most at 65 cents per litre and those in the rest of British Columbia are paying the fourth most.

The average Canadian pays about 51 cents in tax on every litre, and Albertans, where drivers get the lowest rate, pay 25 cents per litre.

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All throughout B.C., drivers are subject to five separate taxes on gas – two carbon taxes, a federal excise tax, provincial excise tax, and a federal sales tax.

The federal sales tax is applied to the total cost after the other taxes have been added onto the initial price of fuel, the release says. That costs drivers an extra 4.1 cents per litre.

“Drivers are fighting to afford to drive to work and high taxes are making it much worse,” Kris Sims, B.C. director for the CTF, said in the release.

“Politicians in Ottawa and Victoria could make fuel prices more affordable by scrapping some of these taxes.”

Since the federal carbon tax is set to gradually increase, British Columbians outside of major centre will be paying 89 cents in tax for every litre of gas by 2030, the CTF says. By then drivers in Metro Vancouver will be taxed $1.02 per litre, Victoria drivers will be paying 95 cents.

But when 2030 rolls around, drivers in Vancouver – who are currently being taxed the most in the country – will be getting taxed less compared to drivers in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

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