In reply to an enquiry regarding the legal aspects of
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operating the engine of a road vehicle on liquefied petroleum gas, a spokesman of HM Customs and Excise told COMMERCIAL MOTOR that: At present under existing legislation, no hydrocarbon oil duty is chargeable on gases used as road fuel, providing they are not liquid at 60°F. and under a pressure of one atmosphere. It is illegal under the Hydrocarbon Oils {Incorporation of Gas) Regulations 1951 to incorporate hydrocarbon gas in any hydrocarbon oils, other than in an approved refinery. It follows, therefore, that providing LPG is used for road fuel as a gas and there is no mixing with oil, no hydrocarbon oil duty is chargeable.
It is difficult to advise you of the likely position were LPG or an* other gas to be used on a commercial scale as road fuel. Clearly, in such circumstances, consideration would have to be given to imposing a countervailing duty, to protect the oil duty, as is the present position with petrol substitutes {which do not include gases). I cannot say on what basis such a duty might be levied, but unless there are good reasons to the contrary, one would aim at a basis which broadly imposed a duty equivalent to that on the oil which was being displaced as road fuel. This would, however, be a matter for Ministerial decision which I obviously cannot anticipate.