Excise duties: the end of discounts is in sight. Urso calls a meeting with the companies: ‘Bring your prices into line with the market’
For three and a half months, the Government has been renewing the measures, gradually reducing the discount to the current level of -6.1 centesimi per litre, which will remain in force until 3 July (inclusive)
by Lorenzo Pace
Key points
A preliminary meeting, so as not to derail the (still long) road back to normality in the fuel sector. This is how one might interpret today’s scheduled meeting between the Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, and representatives of the four oil companies (Api-Ip, Eni, Q8 and Tamoil) at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (Mimit).
‘The latest on fuel prices’
The aim is to ‘take stock of trends in the prices of petroleum products and fuels following the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran and the subsequent resumption of trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz’.
Translation: to ensure that the downward trend of the last few days continues. Not least because the Government – and in particular the Minister for the Economy, Giorgetti – wants to bring an end (barring a US-Iran truce) to the long and costly period of excise duty cuts.
Two and a half months of discounts
A summary of the latest measures. The first measure was introduced on 18 March (and came into force the following day), reducing taxes on petrol and diesel by 24.4 centesimi per litre. For three and a half months, the Government has renewed these measures, gradually reducing the size of the cut to the current level of -6.1 cents per litre, which will remain in force until 3 July (inclusive).
Today’s prices (and what they would be without the discount)
This is because, as mentioned, prices have been falling gradually for weeks, ever since the prospect of reaching an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz (through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes) began to look increasingly likely.
