Blaming the federal government’s decision to reintroduce a fuel excise, the NRMA report found regional drivers, already forced to pay more for fuel than the city, could fork out up to $372 a year more within four years as a result of the tax.

The report flies in the face of claims by the government the excise would only cost the average driver an extra $21 per annum.

NRMA director Graham Blight said the “devil was in the detail”, claiming the tax would increase exponentially and be felt most acutely in the bush.

“If you’re a farmer living on a property in rural NSW ... you’re going to be paying hundreds of dollars more in fuel tax in just a few years,” Mr Blight said.

“The NRMA’s analysis shows the impact the tax will have as it increases each year with indexation and the GST.”

He said only a third of the $15 billion paid to the government each year by road users was invested back into the road network.

Under the NRMA’s modelling, a Toyota Hilux that averages 1000km a week will pay $371.80 a year extra by 2018, while a Ford Falcon driving the same distance will pay $283.14 a year more.

Local courier Daniel Etheridge from Tamworth Parcel Express covers about 1300km a week and said any additional fuel costs could cripple his business.

“It will have a huge impact because my major cost is fuel,” Mr Etheridge said.

“And it’s not something I can just put back onto the customer, because we don’t want to price them out.”

But New England MP Barnaby Joyce defended the excise, saying it would be ploughed entirely back into the road network and only have a modest impact on most households.

“The change in fuel indexation will increase the cost of fuel for a typical household using 50 litres of fuel a week by 40 cents per week by the end of 2014-15,” Mr Joyce said.

“It will generate about $2.2 billion over the forward estimates and about $19 billion over the next decade, with all of the revenue to help us boost our investment in productivity-enhancing road infrastructure.”