Fuels, the Mef: all conditions required for mobile excise duties. Meloni: we are waiting for VAT revenues

The application of the mobile excise mechanism to reduce the flare-up of petrol and diesel prices after the outbreak of the crisis in the Middle East 'necessarily depends on the occurrence of all the expected economic and financial conditions, in the absence of which they cannot operate'. In the meantime, both the scenario and the criticalities for implementation are the subject of 'vigilant attention by the government, which constantly monitors the evolution of the situation'. The reply came from the Ministry of the Economy with Under-Secretary Lucia Albano to a question time in the Finance Committee at the Chamber of Deputies presented by the 5 Star Movement (first signatory Enrica Alifano). A reply that came shortly after the premier Giorgia Meloni had explained in the Senate that 'the mechanism is activated when the increase becomes structural, when the impact on citizens becomes a real impact'.

The question posed in the question time to the Ministry is whether it considers 'the conditions exist for the immediate adoption of the decree to reduce excise duties on fuel prices and whether it does not consider it imperative to adopt regulatory initiatives at the same time with timeliness to remove the critical aspects of the mechanism introduced in 2023, adopting assessment parameters that are more sensitive and representative of the real fluctuations in prices at the distributor, in order to make the resources deriving from the extra VAT revenue immediately available for the cut in excise duties of at least 15 cents per litre, thereby also preventing the inflationary spiral from starting up again'.

In its reply, the Mef recalls that the mechanism of mobile excise duties was 'provided for by Article 1, paragraphs 290 and 291, of Law 244 of 24 December 2007 (2008 Budget Law), which provides, for the protection of the citizen-consumer, that with decree of the Minister for the Economy and Finance, in agreement with the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, the measures of the rates of excise duty on energy products used as fuels or as heating fuels for civil uses established by the Testo Unico Eccise (Tua), may be decreased to offset the higher revenues of value added tax deriving from variations in the international price of crude oil'.

All of this, however, is tied to the condition that "such price increases, on the average of the previous month, with respect to the reference value indicated in the last economic and financial document or in the relative update note submitted to Parliament, also taking into account any decrease, on the average of the two months preceding the adoption of the same decree, of the international price of crude oil with respect to that indicated in the Def and in the update note".

Thus, for the conditions for the adoption of the mechanism to be fulfilled, 'all the economic and financial conditions laid down must be met, in the absence of which they cannot operate'.