Lower oil price before fuel tax

Oil price cuts should not be linked to fuel tax reform, says an article in the Beijing News. The following is an excerpt:

Thousands of car owners submitted a joint petition to the National Development and Reform Commission recently, asking it to lower oil price before levying the fuel tax.

Their petition is reasonable, for oil price cuts and fuel tax are two separate issues. The former is to straighten out price mechanism and the latter concerns tax reform. The two can be conducted separately rather than being linked together.