A new mini extension of the excise duty cut on diesel by 17 cents per liter is looming, currently in force until 5 September: the measure should last until 10 September. It should come via an interministerial decree. Qualified sources report this. Subsequently, the government will proceed with selective measures, currently being modulated, designed above all to benefit lower incomes.
The coverage of the five additional days would pass through the mobile excise duty mechanism, which uses the extra VAT revenue generated by the August increases: the same data that the government expected between 4 and 5 September. The current cut, decided by the Council of Ministers on 26 August, had cost around 130 million. Without an extension, diesel would rise by around 17 cents per liter from 6 September.
Selective measures under study
The ministries involved, according to what has emerged, have been working for days to develop new specific long-term measures on cutting fuel prices. The government intends to implement, after almost six months of general excise duty cuts, a measure to support especially lower incomes and some professional categories. A work that will then have to find a moment of discussion and synthesis during the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, which could be held at the beginning of next week. So far, the cut in excise duties on petrol and diesel, with various modulations, has required an economic commitment of around 2.6 billion.
Last week Palazzo Chigi set the objective of drafting a measure more focused on the income groups that most need economic support, making “the intervention more effective and selective”. However, the League requests that the new measures benefit not only employees but also a series of professional categories – from road haulage to VAT numbers – and requests a progressive revision of the delivery mechanism based only on the ISEE.
The comparison between the ministries is open, among the hypotheses that would have been analyzed include fuel vouchers provided by the employer, who could then request a refund via tax credit, and the use of fringe benefits.
Prices at the pump
Meanwhile, with the conflict between the USA and Iran going on for over six months now, the rush of fuel to the pump does not stop. The daily survey by the Mimit Observatory on Thursday 3 September reports the average price in self-service mode along the national road network at 2.039 euros per liter for petrol and 2.147 for diesel.