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Discount on excise duties until 5 September, then there could be a new small extension with mobile excise duties, as happened previously, after which a stop to general cuts at the pump to introduce targeted and selective interventions aimed at low-income families and workers and the most affected professional categories, such as hauliers. The government is working on how to deal with the high cost of fuel, but among the coalition parties the League stands out, aiming to overcome the ISEE and income bracket criteria, otherwise – this is the reasoning – all the bonuses always end up with the usual ones and the middle class remains excluded.
The measures under study
Specifically, among the measures that could be implemented is that of a fuel bonus, such as the 200 euro bonus introduced by the Draghi government in 2022 to help employees, after the increase in prices following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The voucher would be completely tax-free for the worker and fully deductible for the company that provides it. This time the bonus would also be extended to self-employed workers. Another option on the government’s table is a fuel refund on the social card of those who have a very low ISEE, up to 15 thousand euros. For road haulage, then, the aim would be to overcome the tax credit with ad hoc interventions for the sector.
Who could benefit from it
No measure has yet been decided, but four possible audiences emerge from the hypotheses under study: employees, recipients of the fuel bonus on the model of the 200 euro voucher for 2022; self-employed workers, who this time would be included; holders of an ISEE of up to 15 thousand euros, through a refund on the social card; and hauliers, for whom the overcoming of the tax credit is being assessed with interventions dedicated to the sector.
Pichetto Fratin: more selective assessments
“The interventions that we extended until 5 September were extraordinary interventions on a phenomenon that should have lasted a few weeks, unfortunately it has lasted for months and clearly there are also state budget balances”, said the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, on the sidelines of the Affaritaliani event The Square 2026 in Ceglie Messapica. “Therefore more selective assessments are being made, therefore on sectors or bands”, he explained, hoping that “the Strait of Hormuz will reopen”.
The League’s no
The targeted measures on income and ISEE do not convince the party of deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini. “The League doesn’t agree, they don’t work and they always leave out the middle class, with aid that always ends up with the usual ones,” says Northern League senator Claudio Borghi. And “support through the social card is not good either because in the vast majority of cases it goes to foreigners, while our electoral base is the middle class”, he explains. «Much better would be a cut in excise duties or VAT, more substantial if possible, valid for everyone», underlines Borghi.
The criticism of Codacons
Codacons is very critical, according to which these measures risk transforming an emergency that concerns the majority of motorists into “a social assistance measure, without having any impact on prices at the pump”. The consumer association also warns that limiting aid only to the lowest income groups and to those who use the car for work purposes would have the effect of once again leaving the middle class completely exposed, too “rich” to access support but not enough to be able to absorb the sharp increase in travel costs without consequences.