Gas Tax Suspension Getting Closer To Enactment

Residents who fill up  their vehicles would not have to have the state tax for 30-days.

Annapolis, Md. (KM) – Legislation to suspend Maryland’s gas tax is moving its way through the General Assembly. Both the House of Delegates and the State Senate on Wednesday approved their versions of a bill to suspend the levy for 30-days. A final bill is expected to be sent to the Governor later this week for his signature.

When the 30-day gas tax suspension gores into affect, service stations around Maryland need to act. Comptroller Peter Franchot says they need to change the prices   or lose business. “I just can’t recommend strongly  to the small mom and pops you’ve got to pay attention to this and change your pricing, or you’re not going to have any customers,” he says.  And this is especially true  if a larger gasoline retailer starts charging the lower prices and take away businesses form the smaller operations.

Maryland’s gas tax is just over 36-cents per gallon.

Service stations pay the gas tax when they receive their gasoline deliveries. But when the gas tax is suspended, Franchot says these service stations will be reimbursed for the tax they paid on recent gasoline deliveries. “Every gallon of gas after the minute the Governor signs the bill should be tax  free, and we will reimburse them if they’ve already been charged,” he says.

Franchot says the gas tax suspension  benefits everyone, especially consumers. “Particularly low wage earners who cannot afford expensive gasoline as they begin to  commute back to work after the COVID situation,” the Comptroller says.

He says $100-million will be put back into consumers’ pockets as a result of this gas tax suspension.  . “It’s a darn good thing to do. and It’s affordable,” Franchot says

Franchot had proposed a 90-day suspension of the gas tax rather than just one month. “But it’s a common sense solution to inflation and rising gas prices,” he says,

By Kevin McManus