Excise duty cut, extension until 3 July: diesel discount halved again

For the next four weeks, the cut in fuel excise duties will again be aligned between petrol and diesel: -6.1 cents per litre. In essence, the government's seventh intervention has kept the discount on green fuel (which has been active for more than a month now) the same, while it has halved that on diesel fuel again, which from 23 May to 6 June was 12.2 cents per litre.

The novelties are contained in the inter-ministerial decree, signed by Economy and Environment Ministers Giancarlo Giorgetti and Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, which is already in the Official Journal and establishes an extension until 3 July.

Pichetto Fratin himself said several times last week that decisions would be made on the basis of price lists at petrol stations. In fact, the slow but steady declines already hinted at a reduction in the discount. In particular, in the last few days, the price of diesel has fallen, which compared to Monday costs 3 cents less per litre (today it is at EUR 1.980 per litre), while petrol has fallen by 2 cents (today it is at EUR 1.920 per litre).

To conclude the picture, then, the final figure of the additional VAT revenue for May, due to inflation on energy products, was needed. The figure the government was able to use was 149.4 million. In practice, considering that the discount will last for another 27 days, the daily cost is about 5.5 million. Much less than the initial period when, to maintain a -24.4 cents for both petrol and diesel, hundreds of millions were needed for even shorter periods.

The new fuel discounts will start on 7 June. The petrol price, as mentioned, will remain unchanged at around EUR 1.920 per litre in the coming days. For diesel, on the other hand, one has to expect a rise above the two euro litre mark, albeit by a little. Calculator in hand, with the cut by half, it should reach around EUR 2.040 per litre. For both, however, the trend has been downwards for days.