Diesel, 13.4 per cent discount but only from today
At the debut of the decree cutting excise duties prices still up. At the Guardia di Finanza the list of those who did not comply
Wednesday's wild rush to approve the cut in fuel excise duties failed to make itself felt on the prices applied at petrol stations yesterday, which in the daily monitoring by the Ministry of Enterprise reached 2.125 euros per litre for diesel (+1.2% on the day before) while petrol stood at 1.89 euros per litre (+1%). The decree ended up in the Official Gazette late at night, and its impact should only become apparent by this morning.
Mr. Price Controls
A question of technical time, of course. However, it did not go unnoticed: 'I'm receiving reports from all over Italia of people who, let's say, are a little late,' said the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, pointing the finger not at 'petrol stations that are the last link and have a margin of 2-3 cents per litre' but at 'some companies that are not as quick to lower prices as they are to raise them'. And in the evening Mr. Prezzi, on the instructions of Enterprise Minister Urso and Economy Minister Giorgetti, sent the Guardia di Finanza the long list of distributors who have not yet adjusted their prices, 'with an indication of the potential and most significant anomalies detected'.
The effect of the excise cut
The real accounts, however, will be made today, in the second of the 20 days of discounts of 417.4 million offered by the decree (Decree 33/2026, for those in the know), which in all puts into play 527.4 million considering also the 100 million for the tax credit for road haulage and the 17.4 dedicated to the 20% tax bonus on fuel purchases in fishing. It will be the ministries that will put up the money, with a linear cut measured in proportion to the size of their budgets: the biggest pledge, as usual, is borne by the Ministry of the Economy (127.5 million), followed by the Ministry of Infrastructure (96.5 million) and Health (86.1 million).
Delays will obviously not be allowed on the prices applied from this morning, notwithstanding the fact that operators are often selling product purchased in the past few days at full excise duty and it will be up to the companies to settle the accounts. Based on the average values recorded yesterday, it can be estimated that on the billboards motorists will encounter a discount of 12% on diesel and 13.4% on petrol.
The reduction generated by the decree is in fact worth 24.4 cents per litre, divided between the 20 cents dry cut in excise duty and the 4.4 dragging on VAT (the tax is at 22% and is also calculated on excise duty in addition to the net cost of fuel). Green fuel is expected to average around 1.65 euro per litre, therefore at levels similar to those recorded before the outbreak of the war on Iran, while diesel would fall to just under 1.9 euro per litre, thus remaining some twenty cents above February prices. Because since the outbreak of the new crisis in the Middle East, diesel has been running twice as fast as petrol, increasing by 19.5 per cent according to monitoring by the Ministry of the Environment against the average +10 per cent for green.
Tax credit for three months
This is all set to expire on 7 April, when it is easy to foresee a rekindling of the debate on new measures while the decree will be in conversion in Parliament. It is more complicated, at least at the moment, for the government to return to the subject in these days, in the absence of any relevant news. The tax credit for road haulage will instead concern purchases made from March to May, and will be commensurate with the actual expenditure incurred in each of these months within the ceiling of 100 million. The rules will be set by an inter-ministerial decree, at the initiative of the Infrastructure Ministry. The same time frame is covered by the tax credit for fishing, which will be 20%.
