Government considers extending the diesel discount by 4-5 days

An extension of 4 or 5 days of the 17 cents per liter cut in diesel taxes, financed with the mobile excise duty mechanism. This is the hypothesis on which the government is working, in view of the next expiry of the price cap, in force until Saturday 5 August included. This is what ANSA learns from government sources.

The mini-extension of the cut should be adopted with an inter-ministerial decree of the Ministries of Economy and Environment and Energy Security. The measure will allow us to get to next week, when a Council of Ministers should launch selective support measures on fuels (which require a government decree).

The current discount of 17 cents per liter on diesel taxes (14 cents excise duty plus 3 cents VAT) was decided by the Council of Ministers last 26 August, until 5 September. The measure is financed with a tax advance on the dividends of large energy groups. After the Council of Ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani had announced that "structural aid, however targeted, would be adopted upon expiry, which can help above all the weaker classes, the middle class, and help businesses".

The government is studying fuel cards for the less well-off classes and specific aid for hauliers. It has been observed in many quarters that fuel tax cuts mainly benefit wealthier citizens, who consume more. Hence the decision to switch to selective aid.

The ministerial technicians have not set aside the hypothesis of a tax on the extra profits of energy companies. However, the instrument arouses very strong opposition from the companies themselves, and doubts from sector experts: the additional taxation would reduce investments to increase extraction and refining, and therefore reduce prices.