The upward trend in the average price of petrol on the motorway continues: today, according to the update of the data provided by Mimit, it is still rising for the self on the motorway network with an average price of 2.019 euros per litre. On 14 August the price was 2.015 euros. Self diesel, still on the motorway, is at 1.928 (1.921 on the eve of mid-August), the LPG served is stable at 0.842 euros, as is methane at 1.528 euros. Looking at the green in self-service mode, among the regions the highest average price is still in Puglia at 1.969 euros per liter and the least expensive in the Marche (1.924 euros per liter).
Immediately after Puglia, the highest prices apply to green self-service in Calabria (1.967 euros per litre), in Basilicata (1,966), in Liguria (1,965), in Sardinia (1,962). Closely followed by Val d’Aosta (1,959), Molise (1,954), Sicily (1,946), Campania (1,944), Friuli Venezia Giulia (1,943), Abruzzo, Piedmont and Tuscany (1,941 ), Lombardy (1,940), Emilia Romagna (1,938), Lazio (1,937), Umbria (1,936) with Veneto (1,925) and Marche (1,924) bringing up the rear. In the Province of Bolzano, petrol in self-service mode has the highest price at 1.977 euros per litre, while in the Province of Trento it is 1.952.
Skyrocketing fuel, yet another sting on holidays
Gasoline prices increasingly skyrocketing, therefore. And if for Italian families it represents the umpteenth sting on holidays, the State instead thanks. As a result of excise duties and VAT on fuel, in fact, between the summer exodus and counter-exodus, according to estimates, around 2.2 billion euros will enter its coffers.
Prices at the pump run, despite the obligation to display signs with the average price of fuel to distributors. Adolfo Minister Urso defends the government’s strategy: “The industrial price of petrol net of excise duties is lower than in other European countries such as France, Spain and Germany”. And as far as billboards are concerned, according to the made in Italy minister it is “a measure that has proved to be fully effective which has made it possible, in a market system, to counter speculation, giving full transparency and therefore awareness and ability to choose to the consumer “.
But precisely because of the “high volatility” of fuel prices, in mid-August the Guardia di Finanza “intensified controls to protect citizens”, a plan that will continue until the end of the year. The first results seem to show that adaptation to the new rules is still insufficient. Since August 1, 1,230 interventions have been carried out, finding irregularities in 325 cases, with 789 disputed violations being disputed.
Consumers and gas station attendants protest
Consumers and petrol station associations protest against the high price of petrol. Assoutenti asks the government to intervene on excise duties: to create an automatism that can reduce taxes on the occasion of international price flare-ups. And then redistribute the extra profits. While Codacons announces a complaint to 104 proxies to verify possible insider trading. Fegica, the federation of operators, instead underlines how it is “the sixteenth consecutive day that the average prices of fuels communicated by Mimit have undergone an increase. The cartel imposed on distributors by the government – it is stated – could do nothing. The measure is not only useless but risks being counterproductive”. An effect already reported as a risk by the Antitrust during the hearing on the transparency decree.
They also attack the opposition
For the Democratic Party, Urso’s statements are “out of reality”, while for the PRC, the minister “turns a deaf ear”. Meanwhile, Assoutenti does the math: assuming 15 million petrol or diesel cars circulating on Italian motorways and an average of three full tanks just for trips and the subsequent return, it is estimated that the State collects over 2.2 billion (to be precise 2,275,875,000 euros) thanks to taxes on fuel: an average between taxes on petrol and diesel of 1,513,125,000 as excise duties and 762,750,000 as VAT. VAT and excise duties – recalls the association – today weigh 55.6% on a liter of green and 51.8% on diesel. Considering the average price of fuel for the week of August 7 to 13 provided by the Ministry of the Environment (1.939 euros per liter for petrol, 1.827 euros per liter for diesel) Italians pay 1.077 euros in taxes on every liter of greenery: 0.728 euros for excise duty, plus 0.349 euros for VAT. Taxation on diesel weighs about 0.946 euros per litre: 0.617 for excise duties, 0.329 euros for VAT.
All of Europe suffers
Similar situations are also found in the rest of Europe, with France, for example, which is close behind Italy with prices of around 2 euros per litre. “The government must take action by introducing automatic mechanisms for the reduction of VAT and excise duties on petrol and diesel when industrial prices increase – says the president of Assoutenti Furio Truzzi – in order to lighten the expense both for supplies and for those products such as food, which is affected by higher transport costs.In the meantime, we are asking the Meloni government for urgent action to use the extra profits guaranteed in these days by fuel taxes to immediately cut excise duties on petrol and diesel, on a par with what was done by the previous executive Draghi Finally, we need an in-depth investigation into the formation of fuel prices from extraction, to sale up to the pump, passages where real speculation is hidden”.