B.C. tax hikes on gas, luxury cars, tobacco take effect

It might feel like a badAprilFool's joke, but a slew of tax hikes in B.C. takeeffect today.

Motorists, smokers and luxury car buyers will feel a strain on their wallets as part of the increases that the province introduced in the 2018 budget.

The province has ramped upits carbon tax from $30 to $35 per tonne, the first of four $5 annual increases.

The carbon tax has bumped up gas prices by 1.2cents a litre, which stations have rounded up to two cents.

Gas prices on Sunday were peaking at up to$1.55a litre in Metro Vancouver.

"It's a really a flip of a coin as to whether or not it will stay where it is or drop," said Dan McTeague, an analyst with GasBuddy.com.

McTeague warned that prices could surpass$1.60 a litreasthe switch to summer gasoline next week adds another four cents a litre.

"Brace for more shock to the pumps," McTeague said. "This is going to be the summer of our discontent."

Other hikes in store

A gas taxin Victoria has jumped from 3.5 cents to 5.5 cents per litre, as part of a request by the Victoria Regional Transit Commission to expand service.

Buyers in the luxury car market will now also pay more.

Cars priced between $125,000 and $149,999 include a 15-per-cent tax instead of 10 per cent.

And the tax on cars valued at $150,000 has jumped from 10 to 20 per cent.

With the five-per-cent GST, that makes for a total of 25 per cent tax, meaning aperson buying a $300,000 vehicle would pay $75,000 in taxes.

B.C. car dealers are calling it a "punitive" tax, but that's unlikelyto elicitsympathy from the public, said David Moscrop, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University.

"No one is ever going to feel bad for a Lamborghini salesperson or a Lamborghini driver," Moscrop said.

Tobacco tax rates are increased by 2.8 cents to27.5 cents per cigarette, and by 12.8 cents to 37.5 cents per gram for all tobacco other than cigars and cigarettes.

Paying more for hydro

Meanwhile, BCHydro has increased rates by three per cent.

In March, the B.C. Utilities Commission rejected a request by the provinceto freeze hydro rates for the coming year, which the B.C. NDP governmenthad promised to do in the election.

The commission rejected the request, arguing that theincrease still wouldn't be enough recover BCHydro's costs.