(Finance) – Greater controls, cuts in excise duties and urgent measures to control prices. That’s what they ask consumer associations that arise in front ofincrease in fuel prices which continue to remain at very high levels. According to weekly data from Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (Mase), as soon as they are published, the price of petrol in self-service mode rises to 1.812 euros per litre, diesel to 1.868 euros per litre. But, in many distributors, there is no shortage of exceptions on the upside.
“On the motorway, the price of diesel in served mode exceeds 2.4 euros per liter in many petrol stations, breaking through the ceiling of 2.5 euros on the A14 – denounces the Codacons, which is monitoring the trend of retail price lists –. Based on the latest prices communicated between yesterday and today by the managers to the Ministry of Enterprises, on the A1 green cars cost 2.369 euros per liter served, diesel 2.449 euros/litre; a similar situation on the A4 where a liter of petrol costs 2.384 euros, diesel 2.459 euros. 2.499 euros/litre for diesel on the A21, 2.471 euros/litre on the A13. On the A14, the price lists have broken through the psychological threshold of 2.5 euros per litre: petrol 2.444 euros, diesel 2.531 euros”.
On the anomalous trend of the price lists at the pump, Codacons, after the complaint to 104 Prosecutors and Guardia di Finanza, yesterday presented the announced exposed to the Antitrust, asking the authorities to open an investigation to ascertain any unfair practices or anti-competitive cartels. In particular, the association asked the Antitrust to “promptly verify the existence of any prohibited agreements and immediately put a stop to such conduct which is causing serious damage to consumers. The unjustified increase in price lists at the pump, as well as any agreements or illicit acts to keep prices high, creates in fact – underlines the association – a double damage to the community, because on the one hand it increases the cost of filling up, on the other it leads to indirect effects on inflation through price increases retail of a multitude of goods, considering that in Italy 85% of the goods travel by road”. In this scenario, Codacons has asked the Antitrust to “start an investigation to verify the existence of infringements of the prohibitions established by Article 101 TFEU or agreements restricting competition and therefore use every investigative tool permitted by law and by ritual for the purpose of preparing all the checks necessary to ascertain whether any cases of civil and administrative offense exist in the facts described, as well as any liability and prohibited business practices and consequently, if ascertained, order the appropriate sanctions, the inhibition of the continuation with removal of the effects, subject to precautionary suspension pending the investigation”, ordering the seizure of the fuel purchase bills directly from the oil companies as well as from all the operators of the supply chain the documentation useful for understanding whether speculative maneuvers are underway to unjustifiably raise the price lists at the pump as they constitute things pertinent to the crime necessary for the ascertainment of the facts.
The president of the Competition and Market Authority, Roberto Rustichellilet it be known that he wrote to General Commander of the Guardia di Finanza, Giuseppe Zafarana, requesting the collaboration of the Corps in order to acquire the documentation relating to the recent checks carried out on fuel prices, with particular reference to the violations ascertained.
for theNational Union of Consumers (UNC)however, the responsibility for the price increase is to be attributed to the increase in excise duties decided by the Meloni government. “No speculation on fuel. The increase in prices, at least for the moment,” he says Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumer Union – is exclusively due to the unfortunate and short-sighted choice of the Meloni Government to want to pluck motorists like chickens, triggering the rise in excise duties. In fact, apart from the usual sly people from the neighborhood who never fail, according to official Mase data, on a national average petrol rises by 16.79 cents for petrol and 16 cents for diesel compared to the December 31 survey, i.e. even below 18.3 cents which mathematically depend on the 15 cent increase in excise duties + VAT. In short, a hoax artfully inflated by the Government to try to exonerate itself from his responsibilities. A sting, compared to last week, equal to 8 euros and 40 cents for a 50-litre tank of petrol and 8.01 euros for diesel, respectively 201 and 192 euros a year for a family that fills up twice a month. This afternoon the Government must review its position by restoring the cut of 25 cents, 30.5 with VAT, which Draghi had made from 22 March to 31 December. In fact, despite this discount, 2022 closes with the highest average price ever in nominal terms. Worse even compared to 2002, the catastrophic year in which petrol in self-service mode reached 1.786 and diesel 1.706, well below last year’s average of 1.812 and 1.815 respectively. Furthermore, the possible effects linked to Russian retaliation on the EU ceiling on oil prices must be considered. Now, thanks to the Meloni government – concludes Dona – a liter of petrol costs, compared to a year ago, almost 8 cents more, with an increase of 4.5%, equal to an increase of 3 euros and 93 cents per a 50-litre tank, while diesel goes up by 16.9%, 27 cents per litre, equal to 13 euros and 51 cents per fill up”.
Second Federconsumatori current fuel prices “are well above the level they should reach, beyond the full application of excise duty, the discount of which ended on 31 December, especially if you compare them to the prices practiced in the past with conditions similar to the current ones in the oil and currency markets”. According to the data of theONF – National Consumer Federation Observatory, taking into account both the trend in oil product prices and the trend in the euro/dollar exchange rate, gasoline today should cost at least 8 cents less per litre And the diesel well 19 cents cheaper. This – continues the association – “involves an annual burden, in direct terms, for each motorist who refuels with 2 full tanks a month, 96 euros for petrol, 228 euros for diesel. Added to this are the serious indirect repercussions that fuel increases determine on the price trend of goods (over 86% transported by road) and services, which according to our estimates amount to around 126 euros per year of extra expenditure per family”. The calculations – explains Federconsumatori – “are made net of taxation and highlight how speculation has been going on for some time, in a more or less acute form, as we have been denouncing for months, invoking, unfortunately unheard of, the establishment of special territorial Observatories for monitoring and combating the phenomenon: the full restoration of excise duties only makes an already unsustainable situation worse. urgent and adequate measures are needed to control fuel prices and get them back to normal. An action on several fronts, which re-proposes, even temporarily, the discount on excise duties, which clashes strongly with certain measures of the maneuver such as those taken in favor of Serie A football clubs or such as the unfair flat-tax for VAT numbers and which puts a serious reform of fuel taxation on the government agenda”. which for Federconsumatori must be based on three fundamental points: elimination of obsolete and unjustified excise quotas, which bring the Italian taxation level far above that of other European countries; introduction of mobile excise duty, capable of self-regulating downwards when the prices of petroleum products exceed a set threshold; unbundling of the excise duty from the application of VAT on fuel, the unjust tax on the tax.
“Through this combined action – concludes Federconsumatori – it will be possible to significantly contain fuel prices and reduce taxation which, today, even reaches around 60% of the total cost of fuel.