Italy Considers Shifting Fuel Tax Cuts to Targeted Aid

The fifth installment of excise duty cuts could be different. And therefore decisive for the Government, which could finally begin to move away from the consecutive streak of discounts, costing around two billion, to shift to more targeted interventions. This would mean listening to the advice that Italy has received from both the International Monetary Fund and the European Union during the three months of war.

Today's Council of Ministers

A response will come this afternoon in the Council of Ministers, which will be preceded by internal meetings within the executive to understand which solution to adopt. Also because another deadline is approaching: from June 7th, the cuts of 6.1 cents per liter on gasoline taxes and 12.2 cents on diesel taxes will end.

Measures that, although significantly reduced compared to the beginning (75% for gasoline and 50% for diesel), have a not insignificant cost for the Government, namely about ten million euros per day. Those figures could be recovered from the VAT surplus in May, it is true, but it is not a given given that several resources have already been used in this way. An alternative, in fact, could be to direct them to certain categories. Whether they are specific workers (for example, truck drivers) or less well-off citizens.

The new voucher hypothesis

In recent days, in fact, the idea of intervening for precise groups of people has come back into vogue, namely those with an ordinary ISEE below 15,000 euros. This concerns the beneficiaries of the Card Dedicata a Te: a group of about 1.2 million people. To them, precisely through the card, vouchers worth about 100 euros could be issued.

Falling prices

But these are still hypotheses. What is certain is that the government meetings will be attended with the latest data on fuel prices. Which are showing very clear downward results. Diesel has fallen below two euros per liter, while gasoline has been around 1.93 euros for days. With the calculator in hand, zeroing out the discount would bring unleaded to two euros per liter, while diesel to about 2.1 euros. Good news in view of the deadline, also because no good news has arrived from the European front regarding the fuel issue: the flexibility granted by Brussels for high energy costs will only cover expenses that favor investments; certainly not those not targeted or intended to increase consumption and dependence on fossil fuels.