Excise duties, new cut thanks to extra VAT revenues. Giorgetti: 'No regulation in the Cdm'

No regulations in the Council of Ministers. A ministerial decree will come directly on Saturday 6 June, when the cut in excise duties on petrol and diesel (respectively -6.1 and -12.2 cents per litre) will expire. The confirmation came from Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti.

It means, therefore, repeating the same procedure as in the last two months. And that is that of the 'mobile excise', a mechanism that exploits the higher VAT revenues of the previous month (due to the increase in fuel prices) to finance discounts at the pump.

A mechanism that can be activated after the first week of each month, when the final figure for the previous period is accounted for. In May, for example, the appropriate ministerial decree arrived on 10 May, confirming an extra VAT revenue of EUR 191.2 million.

That figure will be important to understand the extent of the new cuts. Because the government, in the last month, has started to reduce rebates, so as to start a gradual exit from rebates. Expenditure so far has in fact been very high: around two billion euro since the first intervention on 18 March.

At the next meetings, therefore, we will arrive armed with the latest fuel prices. Which are giving very clear downward results. Diesel has dropped below two euros per litre, while petrol has been hovering around 1.93 euros for days. Calculator in hand, zeroing the discount would bring green to two euros per litre and diesel to around 2.1 euros.