The government's combined receipts from all excise taxes in the Highway Trust Fund showed no growth in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Treasury reported, as a large decline in retail taxes on commercial trucks more than offset mild gains from fuel taxes.
In its monthly statement for September, the final month of the fiscal year, the Treasury said total HTF excise tax receipts net of refunds were $41.127 billion for the past 12 months, down 0.5 percent or almost unchanged from $41.344 billion in the 2016 fiscal year.
A look at separate Treasury reports on the various Highway Trust Fund contributions for the last two fiscal years showed that gasoline tax receipts of nearly $26.604 billion in the year through September were up 1.8 percent from the previous year, while diesel taxes generated about $10.736 billion for a 4.6 percent increase.
The combined 2017 increase in receipts from taxes on both gasoline and diesel plus related fuels was about $941 million, for a 2.6 percent gain, the Treasury reports showed.
However, revenue from retail truck taxes for the trust fund reached only $3.117 billion in fiscal 2017, down by 27 percent or $1.148 billion for a drop that was more than enough to offset the relatively small gains from motor fuel user fees.
Those numbers reflect the volatility that stems from such revenue streams as equipment sales, which can fluctuate sharply based on market demand or changes in interest rates for high-cost purchases.
