Seymour wants fuel taxes to go up in January, while Bishop says it would be a ‘death wish’. What do you think?

Thursday, 23 April 2026

Fuel prices soared in March as the Iran war closed the Strait of Hormuz. Stats NZ reports diesel jumped 43% and petrol 18%, causing a record-breaking spike that economists warn will flow into supermarket shelves by spring.

Deputy Prime Minister and ACT Leader David Seymour says the Government should stick to a planned increase to petrol taxes as oil prices soar as a result of the Iran War.

National’s Transport Minister Chris Bishop said its unlikely the fuel taxes will go up as planned early next year, The Post reported.

In January next year, road charges and tax are scheduled to go up by 12 cents per litre, with a further six cents per litre increase in January 2028 and another four cents a litre in 2029.

The fuel excise tax and road user charges (RUC) make up about 70 cents a litre of the cost of petrol and diesel vehicles which is directed into the national land transport fund (NLTF) to pay for upgrading, maintaining and building new roads.

Seymour said the roads can’t fall into disrepair and borrowing should not be increased.

Chris Bishop says he does not have a “death wish” when it comes to increasing fuel taxes, while David Seymour supports keeping plans for them to go up early next year. (File photo)

“To starve the NLTF of funding is going to leave us in a much worse position in the long term,” he told The Post.

“I understand the agony that people are facing that's driving these requests, but if we have roads being cancelled, maintenance being cancelled, roads full of potholes, if we borrow money to try and prop that up and leave debt and inflation for the next generation, or even just the next few years, that is also a failure that we have to balance.”

He added that the land transport fund was under significant financial pressure and there are already roads that may have to be cancelled.

Bishop said officials had advised him to keep the tax increases and even put them up more than what was currently planned but he did not have a “death wish”, The Post reported.

“With diesel at $3.80 a litre and petrol at $3.40 give or take which is the highest it has been for many, many years how popular do you think putting up fuel taxes by 12 cents a litre on the 1st of January is going to be?”

Fuel tax is incurred at a flat rate levy on every litre of fuel, meaning it does not go up with fuel price inflation. While the cost of road repair and construction is subject to inflationary pressures.

The previous Labour Government put up the fuel taxes three times, cut them during the Covid-19 pandemic then put them back up. It had scheduled three further rises from 2023 but those were deferred by the Coalition Government, The Post reported.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called for the Government to scrap the planned increases next year.

Should road charges and tax go up as planned? Vote in the poll above or share your thoughts in the comments. If you’re using the Stuff app on iOS you’ll need to view Stuff.co.nz on a browser to view and post comment.