HMRC has launched new VAT road fuel scale charges for petrol and diesel drivers across the UK, effective from today, May 1, 2026.

The new rates will remain in place until April 30, 2027. Thousands of drivers are expected to be impacted by the changes.

Road fuel scale charges are used on a VAT return to account for the private use of fuel in a business vehicle. HMRC updates these rates once a year.

Drivers have three options under the current rules. They can:

1. Recover VAT in full and pay the road fuel scale charge, 
2. Not recover any VAT at all,
3. Track the split between business and personal mileage to recover VAT partially.

Under the new rates, vehicles emitting less than 120g of CO2 per kilometre will carry a VAT-inclusive charge of £657 for a 12-month period. The charges increase in bands of 5g/km, reaching £2,297 for vehicles emitting 225g/km or more.

Drivers can account for the charges on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis.

For vehicles without a CO2 emissions figure due to their age, the CO2 band is determined by engine size. 

• Engines of 1,400cc or less fall under the 140g/km band. 
• Engines above 1,400cc but under 2,000cc fall under 175g/km. 
• Engines above 2,000cc fall under the 225g/km or more category.

Here is the full list of updated VAT road fuel scale charges:

HMRC states that drivers must calculate how much of the accounting period each rate applies to and record it as a percentage accordingly.

Meghan Markle expressed her extreme anger after Prince Harry took a seat back and avoided confrontation despite humiliation.

The Duke of Sussex’s father, King Charles, was in the US for a four-day trip as he was hosted by President Donald Trump, who often targets the Sussexes.

The monarch not only met his son during the visit but also avoided bringing up Harry and Meghan’s issue to Trump, causing distress in the Montecito mansion. 

According to Closer, “In her [Meghan] view, this is exactly the kind of situation where Harry should be standing his ground, not making excuses for his father.”

“Meghan is fuming and saying it sends the wrong message if they let this go unchallenged,” the source said. 

Archie and Lilibet’s mother is taking King’s move very personally, but Harry has been urging her to look at the bigger picture. 

An insider claimed that the Duke believes that “they need to keep their eyes on the prize and not do anything that could jeopardise their long-term goal of rebuilding their relationship with his family.”

“Emotions are running very high, but so far Harry’s managed to keep a lid on everything,” the report stated. 

PARIS: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as tensions in the Red Sea are reshaping trade routes, with Africa becoming a hub of global container ship traffic, according to logistics and maritime sources.

Over the past two months, the blockade has also pushed shipowners to find alternative land corridors to deliver foodstuffs and manufactured goods by truck, as they can no longer reach the Gulf’s coastal countries by sea.

What are the alternative routes for delivering to Gulf countries?

The Saudi port of Jeddah on the Red Sea is becoming a new regional “hub”, where ships from maritime giants MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Cosco arrive via the Suez Canal.

Cargo then leaves by truck along a desert highway to deliver to places such as Sharjah, Bahrain and Kuwait, which have not been served by sea for the past two months.

“The port of Jeddah is not at all sized to handle such import volumes and a port congestion situation is emerging,” Arthur Barillas de The, cofounder of freight forwarder Ovrsea, told AFP.

According to data from Kpler Marine Traffic, 11 container ships were docked in Jeddah on Thursday, with nine waiting, and an average wait of 36 hours before unloading compared to 17 hours the previous week.

Shipowners have said they will use three ports outside the Strait of Hormuz — Oman’s Sohar, and the UAE ports of Khorfakkan and Fujairah, which are connected by land from the United Arab Emirates.

The port of Aqaba in Jordan serves as a base for sending goods to Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, while a Turkish corridor is also allowing goods into northern Iraq.

On international routes, why are Asia-Europe container ships avoiding the Suez Canal?

The situation started well before the war in Iran but is very much connected to the conflict.

Avoiding the Red Sea from the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to the Suez Canal dates back to November 19, 2023 and the first attack on a container ship by Iran-backed Houthi militias from the coast of Yemen, said CyclOpe, a specialist commodities publication.

The rerouting of ships has now become systematic, said Ronan Boudet, head of container intelligence at Kpler.

They skirt around Africa by following its eastern coast as far as the Cape of Good Hope in southern South Africa before heading back north towards Europe and the Mediterranean.

“With the current situation in the Gulf, we have put several more coins in the machine, it’s not going to get better anytime soon,” Edouard Louis-Dreyfus, chairman of French shipping giant Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, told AFP.

“Today, 70% of the freight traffic that went through the Red Sea in 2023 is being rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope,” added Yves Guillo, a supply chain expert at Efeso, a management consultancy in Paris.

According to data from the International Monetary Fund’s PortWatch platform based on ships’ GPS signals, commercial vessel traffic via the Cape of Good Hope has more than tripled in three years, while traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait has fallen by more than half.

Between March 1 and April 24 this year, an average of 20 commercial vessels went round the Cape of Good Hope every day compared with six in the same period in 2023.

By comparison, traffic in the Red Sea has plummeted: from 18 transits per day through Bab al-Mandeb between March and April 2023, the average fell to five three years later.

What are the consequences?

Transport times have lengthened between Asia and Europe by an average of two weeks and costs have risen because 30 to 50% more fuel is needed and 10 to 20% more ships to ensure the same frequency of service, said Guillo.

The average price to transport a standard 40-foot container on the main shipping routes increased by 14% in April compared to the same period last year, he added, citing changes in the Drewry freight index.

Large differences exist between routes: some African ports are seeing their activity increase. The Tanger Med Port Authority said it handled 11 million standard containers in 2025 — up 8.4%.

But Egypt lost toll revenues from the Suez Canal, which make up a large part of its income. According to CyclOpe, in 2024 it lost $7 billion — a drop of more than 60% compared with 2023.