The federal tax nobody is talking about

The latest inflation figures are out and with inflation up 1.6% in June, I expect there’ll be no movement on interest rates by the RBA this month.

But along with the inflation rate being up, new figures from the ABS show a sleeping giant that’s driving the cost of living and the cost of doing business through the roof – and nobody is talking about it.

The latest ABS figures show the cost of petrol is up 10% on average over the past quarter. That’s a huge impost on businesses and families.

The increase is even more dire in some rural and regional areas, where fuel costs have increased by up to 20%, slugging farmers, truckies and tradies.

Fuel costs are a huge burden for many businesses, with spikes like this impacting budgets and balance sheets.

Of course, the cost to business is inevitably being passed on to consumers, who are left with no choice but to cop the increased fuel cost, as well as the increased cost of purchasing anything from a business that also has to pay more for fuel.

This is how the cost of living continues to increase.

Of course, there is a pretty simple way to ease the cost of fuel, and it rests firmly in the hands of the federal government – cut fuel excise – which currently earns the federal coffers billions of dollars every year, straight from our pockets.