A legal and accounting stunt is needed to finance the second extension of the cut in excise duties on fuel, decided by the Council of Ministers on 30 April. The decree law approved on Thursday provides for the extension only until May 10, allocating 146.5 million euros.
To reach the three weeks, another decree will be needed, but a ministerial one
To reach the three weeks announced by the prime minister, another decree will be needed, this time a ministerial one. It will arrive in a few days, when it is expected to have around another 200 million in resources arriving from the increased revenue linked to VAT collected with the increases of recent periods. Meanwhile, some good news arrives regarding gas. Italy has filled almost 50% of its stocks for next winter, compared to 32.7% in the EU and 25.7% in Germany. The result comes exactly one month after the start of storage, with the price at its highest since April 14th. Italian operators have already bought methane to fill 90% of stocks, and the product will arrive in the coming months. There will be no shortage of gas next winter, even if the bills will be higher due to the rise in prices.
Returning to fuels, Giorgia Meloni in a press conference after the Council of Ministers had announced an extension of the cut in excise duties by 21 days, starting from 2 May. The reduction for diesel remained at 20 cents per liter (with a final saving at the pump of 24.4 cents, given the simultaneous reduction in VAT). For petrol (which in recent weeks had increased in price much less than diesel) the cut was reduced to 5 cents per litre. But the text of the decree law, published in the Official Gazette, reported an extension of the excise duty cut only until May 10, with a coverage of 146.5 million. Codacons immediately asked the government to clarify the real duration of the cut. However, the ministries involved (Economy, Business and Energy Security) and then Palazzo Chigi immediately specified the extension – a commitment also indicated in the explanatory report of the decree law – will last until 22 May, as announced by the prime minister. The period from the 11th to the 22nd will be covered with a specific ministerial decree which will arrive close to the first deadline. But why this two-part extension? Palazzo Chigi explains that the second intervention will arrive in the next few days, as soon as the availability of resources deriving from the VAT extra revenue on fuels has been quantified, expected within about ten days. Government sources revealed on Thursday that the cover-ups would have been found with Antitrust sanctions and extra VAT revenue. Evidently, the proceeds from the fines had already been quantified, while the tax increase was still to be defined. So, the government had to break the extension in two.