Diesel, government evaluates excise alignment: here is how much it would cost households

The hypothesis, for now, is only under consideration, but it has already triggered much controversy: the government is evaluating the possible alignment of tax rates taking into account the European Commission's recommendations on harmful environmental subsidies (SAD)'. The Ministry of the Economy has made it clear on several occasions that the possible move 'will not result in the simple raising of excise duties on diesel'. The Union of Energies for Mobility (Unem) has issued a very precise note with which it calculates the possible impact on families in the extreme case in which the excise duty on diesel would be aligned to that of petrol: the extra outlay for families would be almost EUR 2 billion, approximately EUR 70 per year for 26 million families.

Currently the total tax burden (excise duty + VAT) on petrol is 1.041 euro/litre (of which 0.313 of VAT) equal to 60% of the consumer price, while on diesel fuel it is 0.909 euro/litre (of which 0.292 of VAT) equal to 56%. A level of taxation that in the case of diesel fuel, recalls Unem, is the highest among the 27 European countries.

According to the latest 'Catalogue of Sad and Saf', published in 2022 by Mase, the various subsidies introduced to support particular occupational groups, such as farmers or lorry drivers, as well as the difference in tax treatment between petrol and diesel (approx. EUR 3.4 billion) are considered Sad.

In the extreme hypothesis in which the alignment of the current rates would result in the equalisation of the excise duty on diesel with that on petrol, the effect would be an immediate increase in the consumer price of diesel of 13.5 euro cents per litre, including the VAT component (equal to 22% of the industrial price plus excise duty). In the event of an alignment, the increase in diesel prices would also have an effect on goods and passenger transport with vehicles that do not benefit from the excise tax concessions currently provided (heavy goods vehicles under 7.5 tonnes and pre-Euro V heavy goods vehicles).

In short, the sting would be considerable. For this reason, Unem hopes that the government's intervention will be comprehensive and review the taxation of all energy products based on their carbon footprint, in line with the revision of the energy taxation directive underway at the European level, also intervening on the taxation of renewable products, such as biofuels, which are also valued in the recent Pniec update, and which are still subject to the same excise duty as the fossil products (petrol and diesel) they are replacing. "It is in fact now recognised by our government," writes the association led by Gianni Murano, "the essential role of biofuels in the energy transition, and providing for a realignment for all energy sources that affect transport also in terms of their carbon footprint is certainly a necessary revision to guide and affect a long process of transport decarbonisation.