The General Services Administration wants to make sure that, in the process, agencies do not pay any state or local taxes on gasoline charged to its fleet cards.
Agencies get net bills minus state and local taxes.
Oil companies receive reimbursement for the taxes from the jurisdictions that levied them. Card issuers that bid on fleet card contracts last year under GSA's SmartPay program had to offer the tax back-out service. The six SmartPay card contracts, awarded in February 1998, took effect Nov. 30. GSA became the central agency for government fuel cards about 20 years ago, said Bill Webster, director of GSA fleet management. Until three years ago, the oil companies themselves had to subtract the taxes from fuel charges on GSA-issued cards.