Last Monday, the Swedish government presented a crisis package of as much as 14 billion, which among other things means giving 1000 Swedish kroner to all private individuals who own a car.
Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum will not copy that model.
– Is it relevant to introduce a crisis package as the Swedish government has proposed?
– Many Swedes travel to Norway to fill up, because many experience that prices have been higher in Sweden than in Norway. We have done much more to power. This has been our biggest priority.
– TUT AND DRIVE: Trygve Slagsvold Vedum recently got to test drive a new pickup together with Broom. Photo: Ditlev Eidsmo / TV 2
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– So a crisis package on fuel is less relevant?
If we are to do something, it must be more lasting, not just an acute thing here and now. Then maybe we can do things there too.
– What?
– In the past, something has been done with the motor insurance fee, which is quite high. We may have to do something for individual industries that are strugglingsays the Minister of Finance.
At the same time, he emphasizes:
– We have to see this a little over time. Now the price is 5-6 kroner lower than last week in many places, so this varies enormously. But if prices skyrocket again and are sky high. Then it may be one of the moves we make.
Promises better purchasing power
What Vedum puts in “over a period of time” is not crystal clear, but he points out:
– We can not change fees from week to week or month to month when we see extreme effects, it would not be good for anyone.
The Minister of Finance nevertheless promises that Norwegians who earn between 300-700,000 kroner a year will have more to do when they see the year as a whole.
– There may be individual months where there are extreme effects, such as now after the war with extreme fuel prices. But our goal is for the ordinary family to have better purchasing power, he says to TV 2.
Will not set price limit
In May, a revised national budget will be presented, when asked if there will be a cut in the fuel tax, to which Vedum answers:
– What we are going to do is prioritize defense and police. It is also financial security that is incredibly important. There are measures that mean that we do not put pressure on interest rates, but tax measures may also be relevant. But we have to see how prices develop.
According to the Minister, this price development must be high over a longer period of time, but Vedum will not say anything about how high.
– We have not put any concrete figures on it, we have to look at the whole.
Øystein Foros, Professor of Economics at the Norwegian School of Management said to TV 2 on Monday that precisely this uncertainty makes fuel prices a headache for the government.
– We do not know how long this will last. When you give this type of help, you often struggle to reverse the measures again when the oil price and fuel prices go down again, Foros believes.
– UNPREDICTABLE: The consequences of the corona crisis combined with the war in Ukraine create extreme fluctuations, according to Saltvedt. Photo: Magnus Nøkland / TV 2
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Unusually uncertain outlook
The uncertainty associated with how the oil price will develop in the future is unusually high, according to chief analyst Thina Saltvedt at Sustainable Finance in Nordea.
– There are large fluctuations in the oil price, I actually can not remember that I have ever seen such fluctuations, Saltvedt said to TV 2 on Monday.
Think VAT is peaceful
To disregard the Swedes’ grip with more crisis packages, which economists believe can push up the key interest rate, there are few options for the government left, according to Foros.
– Of the price of the pump, 20 percent is VAT. If the price is 20 kroner, the VAT is four kroner, the NHH professor explained.
But cutting VAT only on fuel is not a particularly popular proposal to submit to the Ministry of Finance.
– I do not think politicians will do anything with VAT. But they can reduce fuel taxes, said the economics professor.
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