Chancellor, George Osborne has announced that the planned fuel duty increase for September 2014 will be cancelled. This is expected to save motorists 1.61p per litre, extending the current freeze to nearly four and a half years, the longest in over two decades. Duty will now be frozen until May 2015, for the remainder of the current parliament. The Treasury says it currently costs the average driver £7 less to fill up their car, and £11 by the end of parliament: "I said earlier this autumn that if we could find the money, I'd like to go on freezing duty," said Mr Osborne. "Today I can report that because we have taken difficult decisions to control the public finances, I can deliver on that promise." The Government has also committed to maintaining the differential between the main rate of fuel duty and the rate for road fuel gases like Liquefied Natural Gas and Compressed Natural Gas for 10 years, in a bid to encourage uptake of cleaner fuel. Fuel is currently the largest and most volatile variable cost for fleet operators, who are now increasingly implementing fuel management schemes to reduce their monthly fuel usage. The news will be welcomed by fleet operators, who should see their average fuel bills drop: [The news will] be welcomed by 36 million UK drivers, not least the record number of workers who now commute by car, some 17 million in total,Ó said Prof Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation. "But 60 per cent of the pump price is still taxation and about 7 per cent of all the chancellor's income comes from motorists. Whichever way you look at it, drivers are doing more than their fair share to prop up government spending," he added. However, there is still some concern that fuel firms will take advantage of the duty freezes and increase their margins further, says AA public affairs head, Paul Watters: "Up to 76 per cent of AA members have had to cut back on car use, other spending in the family budget or both. "Let's now hope that the players in the oil and fuel markets don't cancel out the chancellor's generosity."