“Slab for slab we deliver on the election promise of more reasonable fuel prices,” said Minister of Economy Ebba Busch (KD) according to TT at the press conference where she and SD’s Oscar Sjöstedt told that taxes on gasoline and diesel will be lowered at the turn of the year.
According to their report, the tax on petrol is reduced by 1.64 and the tax on diesel by 43 öre per litre. On top of that, there will be a reduced reduction obligation which will lead to a further krona reduction in the price of petrol, according to the Minister of Economic Affairs.
But this is a calculation of happiness that will not be noticed at the pump.
“Goes to finance a failed tax increase”
What she did not mention as loudly was that these are gross figures that are based on the fact that the tax on petrol and diesel would actually have been increased at the turn of the year and a large part of the money the government spends goes to finance a non-existent tax increase.
Net, or at the pump as the politicians usually say, the petrol tax cut will be 75 öre and the diesel tax cut will be zero öre.
This is due to previous decisions to add up the taxes on fuel every year, so it costs money to stop the add-ons that were already budgeted.
“Extremely expensive for the government”
The consequence is that it will be extremely expensive for the government to deliver this type of tax reduction at the same time as external factors mean that the price of petrol and diesel continues to be at historically high levels, which no one the government can really influence.
On September 9, 2022, two days before the election, a liter of gasoline cost 18.68 according to Vi Bilägare. Today it costs 21.04. The government thus still has some way to go before it can deliver on election promises of reductions of upwards of ten kroner on diesel and five to six kroner per liter of gasoline.