Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama says the government will abolish the 35-year-old "provisional" surcharge on gasoline, but - abandoning his pre-election promise to cut taxes - that overall taxes will not change. The government says it will introduce a new tax in place of the provisional surcharge so the effective tax rate stays the same. Right now, gasoline is taxed at 53.8 yen per liter, or the equivalent of $93.60 per barrel. Of that, 25 yen is the provisional surcharge, which was introduced in 1974 after the first oil crisis and was designed to finance road construction and maintenance.
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