Excise duties: another extension to the cuts is on the table tomorrow
The Government is working on extending the discounts for a further 7–10 days: yet another delay for the ‘targeted support’, as the impact of the reductions in vehicle tax is proving too slow
The Government will return to the issue of high fuel prices at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting, on Wednesday. It is likely to approve yet another extension of the across-the-board reduction in excise duties, which officials are currently working on.
The forthcoming decree
The move appears increasingly inevitable given the worsening price forecasts, whilst the targeted aid measures announced on several occasions by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are struggling to materialise. The nature, scale and duration of the new discount are still being assessed by the Ministry of the Economy: speculation circulating in recent hours suggests a further extension of 7–10 days, which would also serve to bridge the gap until 22 September, when Istat is due to release updated figures on the 2025 deficit and GDP – data that will be crucial for Italy’s exit from the EU’s excessive deficit procedure. On that basis, the government reasons, it will also be easier to gauge the financial scope for moving on to the next phase of support measures to tackle rising energy costs.
Tight budget
But the latest link in the now endless chain of extensions is taking shape precisely because the public budget offers little scope for a change of course in the short term. Given the virtual absence of adequate resources for this year, barring complicated political decisions to find funding, the petrol bonus scheme has run aground, weighed down by pressure to extend its scope to self-employed individuals with VAT registration numbers, as requested by the Lega, and to pensioners, as proposed by Forza Italia.
Too many requests
The alternative solution would involve a discount on vehicle tax, with a higher discount for small cars and a gradually lower one for larger vehicles; however, this could only come into effect from next year, as almost everyone has already paid their 2026 vehicle tax. This is too late for a policy that needs to provide immediate solutions, such as those offered by the discount on excise duties: even if it ends up helping “those who do not need it or who come from France to fill up with petrol in Italia”, as the Prime Minister herself pointed out.
