REFUELING OR BLOWING? – Social networks are full of memes about expensive fuels, like the 10 euros of petrol which translates into making the motorist smell the dispensing gun: satire always exaggerates, but the crazy prices are more than real. The psychological wall of 2 euros per liter has been overcome with momentum and there is even talk of 3 euros, equivalent to just under 6,000 of the old lire. In many quarters it is suggested to modify the taxation, which includes 22% VAT and the notorious excise duties, a tax on the production and consumption of goods. We recall that excise duties also finance things that are now meaningless, such as the reconstruction after the Vajont disaster (1963) or the Florence flood (1966): they are not eliminated also to make cash. The operators of the service stations, alarmed by the contraction in consumption caused by the prohibitive prices, ask to lower the VAT from 22 to 5% while among the parties the proposal to sterilize the VAT on price increases and lower excise duties is making its way.
ACTING ON MULTIPLE FRONTS – In fact, Ansa reports that the rapporteur of the bill that will convert the bill decree, Luca Squeri of Forza Italia, said that “I will propose the sterilization of the vat on fuels, at least for the share due to the most recent increases. There is talk of about 10 cents per liter, not much compared to the surge in prices, but at least it is something. “Fdl, Forza Italia and Lega ask for an intervention on excise duties while the managers of Faib Confesercenti, Fegica Cisl, Figisc / Anisa Confcommercio propose the return of the so-called “mobile excise duty“, Ie a decrease to compensate for the higher VAT revenues deriving from the price increase. The conditions for its application – the price of oil increased by more than 2% compared to the value defined in the Dpef and the fact that in the two months preceding its international price did not decrease by the same percentage – are (unfortunately) widely respected. The Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, told TG3 on 24 February that “I believe that the Government must intervene as it did against the expensive-bills. The increase in prices has led to higher revenues, which I estimate at around 1-1.5 billion euros, and therefore one could think of a sterilization of VAT ”.
LET’S TRY WITH STOCKS – We remind you that, even if the price at the pump increases a lot, the revenue from managers remains the same, a few cents per liter. The weekly survey on average prices on March 7 said that on the price of 1.953 euros / liter, excise duties weighed for 0.728 euros and VAT for 0.352 euros. Another countermeasure is the use of stocks: the International Energy Agency (IEA) already announced on 4 March that “the member countries of the IEA have decided to make 61.7 million barrels of their emergency oil stocks“. These 9.5 billion liters seem a lot but they are only 3% of total stocks; Italy released around 2 million barrels, Japan 7.5 million and even Luxembourg contributed 109,000 barrels. It also moves by contacting exporting states willing to increase their production.
TRANSPORT IS IN DIFFICULTY – In this context, one of the sectors that suffers the most is freight transport, to the point that Trasportiunito announced that “starting from next Monday, March 14, the road haulage companies will suspend their services nationwide due to force majeure”. The association specifies that it is not a strike or a specific claim but an initiative aimed at coordinating the demonstrations on the state of extreme need in the sector.
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