After the halt to the excise duty cut decided on 5 October, Italy returns to the top in Europe – Malta excluded – for taxes on diesel (48%), and third for taxes on petrol (51%). On the final price, however, the position is decidedly more favourable: seventh place for diesel and eighth for petrol, i.e. well below the pump price in France and Germany. Malta is its own kingdom because, enjoying managed prices, it finds itself with the lowest pump prices in Europe and the highest excise duties. On the island the price of petrol is 1,340 euros/litre (of which 56.3% excise duties) and that of diesel is 1,210 euros/litre (54.3% excise duties). The consumer association Adusbef did the math. Next week will be a crucial week for maintaining the truce with the categories most affected by high fuel prices: hauliers, farmers and fishermen. The crisis calendar includes a demonstration by taxi drivers on Monday, and Salvini’s meeting at the Porta Pia ministry on Tuesday with the acronyms of the road haulage companies. According to the Adusbef analysis, based on EU Commission data updated to 19 October, petrol in Italy was, on 19 October, at 2.015 euros per liter (France at 2.228 euros/litre and Germany at 2.179 euros/litre) and diesel at 2.244 euros per liter (France at 2.345 euros and Germany at 2.266 euros).
Today the Observatory on fuel prices of the Ministry of Made in Italy reports the average price of fuel in ‘self service’ mode at 2.020 euros per liter for petrol (2.022 yesterday’s price) and 2.261 euros per liter for diesel (2.260 yesterday’s price). While on the motorway network, however, the average self-service price is 2.042 euros per liter for petrol (2.045 yesterday) and 2.301 euros per liter for diesel (2.300 yesterday). On diesel, the average taxation in the EU stops at 37.9%. Italy is followed by Belgium, Denmark, France and Lithuania with excise duty percentages between 42% and 43%, while the lowest taxation is recorded in Poland (25.5%), Spain and Sweden (approximately 27%). In the ranking of average diesel prices at the pump, Finland is at the top with 2.531 euros per litre, followed by Denmark (2.501 euros) and the Netherlands (2.456 euros), while Italy is placed in seventh position, after France and Germany, with an average of 2.244 euros per litre, while the cheapest diesel is found not only in Malta (1.21 euros/litre) but also in Poland (1.79 euros/litre), Bulgaria and Spain (1.88 euro/litre). “Motorists are the most harassed in Europe in terms of diesel taxation – reports the president of Adusbef Antonio Tanza – The State continues to enrich itself thanks to the high cost of fuel and, despite the promises, the mechanism of mobile excise duties which could have guaranteed a reduction in prices at the pump by exploiting the greater VAT revenue has fallen into oblivion”. «Italy has the lowest excise duties on cigarettes and the highest on diesel and petrol in all of Europe» observes Carlo Calenda who asks the government to «increase excise duties on luxury goods, such as alcohol and cigarettes, to lower those on an essential good such as fuel, thus guaranteeing an impact of 3.4 billion».