As fuel prices continue to soar farmers have been given some solace with news they can claim 38 cents per litre tax credits for petrol and other taxable fuel used on the farm.

The new figure is an increase from the 33 cents per litre that was previously available and while it seems a small amount given the significant hike in fuel costs, most agree it is better than nothing.

Farmer Richard Tink said most farmers were reaching the point where any help was appreciated.

“Obviously the tax credit amount isn’t going up in proportion to the actual fuel prices,” said Mr Tink, who runs 6500 acres on two properties near Narromine.

“Any saving we get is massive given the seasons we have had over the last few years. I know it will come in handy for us.

“We are farming as efficiently as we can and getting about 2.5 litres of fuel per hectare as opposed to about 4-5 litres per hectare with our old equipment.”

Despite this, Mr Tink estimates his average monthly fuel bill to be between $10,000 and $15,000 as most of his machinery runs on diesel.

He farms wheat, barley, chickpeas, canola and lupins at his two properties ‘Almirica’ and ‘Long Plain’.

He said estimations made at the start of the last financial year had been blown-out massively by skyrocketing fuel prices.

“This time last year we sat down and did our budgets and actually over-budgeted quite a lot for fuel because it was really starting to go up,” he said.

“As it turns out, it was the only budget we got right. We were right on the mark.

“We didn’t budget for the price of fertiliser and the like going up as much as it did because of added freight costs.

“We are about to sit down and do our budgets for this year and we will have to look at budgeting for fuel at about $2.50 to $2.60 per litre because we just don’t know what it is going to do.”

ben.walker@ruralpress.com