Government gives green light to decree against high fuel prices. Meloni: “We fight speculation"

The government launches a measure for the temporary cut in the cost of fuel given the rise in prices following the war that has been ongoing for almost three weeks in the Middle East. The Council of Ministers has approved a cut of 25 cents per liter in the price of fuel at the pump. According to government sources, the measure should initially last 20 days. The government intends to monitor the progress of the conflict between the United States and Israel against Iran and involves a large part of the countries of the Persian Gulf, with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of global oil transits.

The decree, it is reported, in fact absorbs and expands the measure initially hypothesized to provide petrol vouchers via the ‘Dedicated to you’ social card. The text passed by the Council of Ministers, as far as can be seen, also provides for the strengthening of Mr Prezzi, an institution strongly supported by Mimit, with anti-speculation controls on fuel prices. And then it contains a 28% tax credit on diesel purchases for hauliers and fishermen.
“We intervened in the Council of Ministers with a decree regarding the price of fuel, the priority at the moment”, explains Prime Minister Gioria Meloni speaking on Tg1.

“We intervened – he adds – with three measures: in fact we cut 25 cents per litre, we introduce a tax credit for hauliers because we don’t want the price increase to be passed on to consumer goods, and we create an anti-speculation mechanism that links the price of fuel to the real trend in the price of oil, introducing sanctions for anyone who deviates”.

The decree, adds Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, “provides for a substantial cut in excise duties, which from the next few hours will be transformed into a reduction in the price of diesel and petrol. From the next few hours Italians will pay less than Germans, French and Spanish”. Today the leader of the League met the main oil companies in Milan, a meeting that will be repeated on a weekly basis.
The other deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani underlines: We have decided to give a concrete response to citizens faced with the increase in the cost of energy due to the war”.

The opposition’s assessment is different. “We were the first to ask the government to return the extra VAT revenue to citizens” but today “it only intervenes for 20 days, coincidentally with a referendum vote in between” and if the measure launched today by the Council of Ministers ends after 20 days it means that “it is an electoral decree”, insists PD secretary Elly Schlein.

The cut in excise duties by 25 euro cents, including VAT, estimates Codacons, translates into a drop in the price at the pump of -0.305 euros per litre, with a saving of 15.2 euros on a 50-litre tank.
In the meantime, the prime minister is also working on the dossiers in view of the EU Council starting tomorrow. A letter to the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and to the president of the EU Council, Antonio Costa was sent to ask, among other things, to bring forward the revision of Ets 1 to May and to extend the free allowances beyond 2034.

The letter was written together with the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. It calls for “a thorough review of the ETS aimed at mitigating its impact on electricity prices and reducing the risk of carbon price volatility, including an extension of free EU allowances under ETS 1 beyond 2034”. And to “phase out the elimination of free allowances starting from 2028 to avoid excessively burdening the industry during this transition period”.