Was VAT initially a luxury tax?
It’s VAT (Value Added Tax). The luxury part only applies to food. For everything else, where value is added to the product or service then you have to charge VAT. Fuel companies buy oil, turn it into diesel/petrol plastics etc and then have to charge VAT on the end sale because they added value to the crude oil. Plus the government are rip offs, there would be no money left for the government to spend if the give fuel tax breaks. They already have it tough enough that they had to impose a smoking ban and cut tobacco sales as a result.
