Trump says he will suspend petrol tax amid soaring US fuel prices

Senator Hawley plans legislative action supporting President Trump’s bid to waive the petrol tax amid rising consumer costs.United States President Donald Trump said he will cut the 18-cent federal tax on petrol to offset surging prices that have continued to soar after his comments that the US ceasefire with Iran is on “life support”.On Monday, Trump said he would suspend the petrol tax, but did not specify an end date.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘A year of resistance’: Cuba’s private sector faces Trump’s oil blockadelist 2 of 4With food benefit cuts looming in the US, Californians eye billionaire taxlist 3 of 4Food inflation hammers households in war-hit Iranlist 4 of 4Iran war day 73: Trump and Tehran clash over latest peace proposalsend of list“Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in,” Trump told CBS News.Trump later told reporters that he would waive the tax, which generates $2.5bn in funds used for US roadway infrastructure, “till it’s appropriate”.The US administration hinted at the idea on Sunday, when US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the NBC News programme Meet the Press that the White House was considering suspending the tax.While the Republican president claimed he would waive the tax, that is not within the White House’s authority. Suspending a federal tax requires an act of the US Congress.However, key Trump ally Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said on the social media platform X that he would introduce legislation on Monday to do that.In March, Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, proposed suspending the tax until October.“I anticipate it would pass, but there could be a procedural delay. It also suggests that President Trump doesn’t see a quick end to the reduced volumes and is trying to cushion the American consumer,” Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera.“The impact could be greater in states that have also reduced their own petrol taxes and could reinforce differentiation between petrol prices by region.”