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The cut in excise duties on diesel will be extended by five days, from Sunday 6 September to Thursday 10 inclusive. This is what the government has decided to tackle the high cost of fuel, which shows no signs of stopping with the prices of petrol and diesel having increased even today. The extension will be financed with the mobile excise duty mechanism. The measure will be contained in an interministerial decree on Energy Economy and Security, which will be published in the Official Journal.
It will probably be the last general discount on fuel (there have been 7 since March, costing over 2 billion). From next week, the government wants to move on to targeted aid to those most affected, i.e. the less well-off and lorry drivers. According to the Ministry of Business, the average price of fuel in ‘self-service’ mode along the national road network today is equal to 2.046 euros per liter for petrol (2.039 Thursday’s price) and 2.157 euros per liter for diesel (2.147 Thursday’s price).
The last tax discount on diesel (17 cents per litre, i.e. 14 cents excise duty and 3 cents VAT) was decided by the Council of Ministers on 26 August, for 11 days, up to and including Saturday 5 September. To finance it, an advance on taxes on dividends from energy companies was used, for approximately 130 million euros. The five-day extension of this discount, from Sunday 6th to Thursday 10th inclusive, will cost approximately 60 million euros. This time the money will be obtained with mobile excise duties, i.e. with the August VAT increase on fuel, following the increase in prices in July.
But from next Friday, the government intends to change its policy. No more generalized tax discounts on fuel: they are no longer sustainable by public budgets, and end up favoring the rich, who consume more. The executive intends to move on to targeted aid, intended only for those most affected by the high cost of fuel: the less well-off classes and lorry drivers. This latest 5-day extension of the tax discount is a bridging measure, which serves to arrive at a Council of Ministers next week, which will approve the selective aid. But what this aid will be like, and above all how it will be financed, is still the subject of discussion in the technical offices of the ministries of Economy and Energy Security.
Among the tools under study, there are fuel cards for citizens with basic incomes, and support for road transport companies. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is pushing for the aid to also go to VAT numbers. On financing, the technicians evaluate in particular the taxation of extra profits of refining companies, which have skyrocketed. But the technical offices do not neglect other forms of taxation of the extra profits of energy companies. The League is pushing in this direction, while Forza Italia is slowing down, and even sector experts are skeptical: for them, taxing companies would take away funds for investments in production and refining, which would lower prices.
«Energy prices are high all over the world. It is not an Italian issue – commented Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani -. In other parts of Europe they are more expensive than here. The government monitors, intervenes, will intervene. We will also involve the oil companies, so that they can, as they have already begun to do, help the state. But the problem is linked to the international situation.” The National Consumers Union defines the extension of the excise duty cut as “the usual half-assed measure”, while Codacons speaks of “a handout that will not save motorists from the supply shortage” and Assoutenti denounces “the absence of structural measures aimed at resolving the fuel emergency in our country”.