MILANO – Resolved with a freeze on the gas station strikemeeting between petrol station unions and the government.
“Appreciated the clarification received with the Government, which restores an unequivocal truth: the managers have no responsibility for the increase in prices, nor for any alleged speculation that has been mentioned. As regards the petrol station organisations, the controversies end there”. So in a joint note Faib, Fegica, Figisc/Anisa after the meeting with the Meloni executive. They explain, “a path is opening that can lead to re-evaluating even the strike called for the end of the month, currently frozen, albeit with the proviso for its suspension according to the examination of the text of the decree once it has been issued”.
From sources of Palazzo Chigi we learn that a comparison with the distributors sector will start of petrol, starting with a technical table scheduled for next Tuesday, 17 January.
The anger of the category and the step back on excise duties
To provoke the anger of the gas station attendants, who took a tough position by announcing yesterday the strike for 25 and 26 January, was the story of the rise in prices at the pump. An increase that has come since the beginning of the year, when the discounts on excise duties on petrol, which had been introduced by the Draghi government, finally waned (after an initial reduction in December). At first, several government officials had pointed the finger at the “speculation” of the sector, especially when consumer associations had detected some anomalies on the distribution network with borderline cases of price increases up to almost 2.5 euros per liter . The Guardia di Finanza has also moved, as has the Antitrust, for its checks, also extended to the brokerage network upstream of the refueling stations: there would be the bulk of the problem, between arbitrage on storage and fuel maneuvers for maximize profit.
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Then, however, the official surveys of the average petrol prices in the first week of the year (therefore, without the discounts on excise duties) showed increases in line with the disappearance of the tax advantage. And the gas station attendants have shown all their resentment for having ended up in the pillory. The secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, linking their protest to that of the CGIL with the UIL, spoke of “a sign of evident social malaise” and of equally evident “limits and errors that the government has made”. Meanwhile, the executive announced the decree on price transparency, introducing the daily communication of the price to the Ministry, the publication of the national average by the distributors alongside their own quotations, a price cap on the highway and promising to crack down on sanctions and controls. A new discount on excise duties was initially ruled out. Then, Thursday evening, first Minister Giorgetti in a hearing in the Senate and then Prime Minister Meloni interviewed on television, announced new adjustments to the decree: there will be price monitoring and, in the event of increases such as to generate extra VAT revenue, excise cuts would again be considered. In addition, Meloni has ensured the extension to the whole of 2023 of the fuel bonus of 200 euros for employees and a renewed bonus for public transport for commuters.
This reverse, in the midst of criticism from the opposition and the electoral base of the majority, has led to today’s transition. “It was a fruitful meeting, there was a clarification. We thank the government, which has listened to the needs of the category. We can say that we are in a position to feel quite satisfied because it was shortly agreed to meet again to start the technical table on the sector that we have been asking for for some time. The table will be based on all the emergency issues of the sector”, said Giuseppe Sperduto, president of Faib Confesercenti, after the meeting between the initials of the petrol station managers with the delegation of the government at Palazzo Chigi. Present at the table were the Minister of the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgettithat of companies and Made in Italy, Adolfo Ursoand the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano. The strike, explained Sperduto again, “is frozen if only because we cleared out everything that had been inappropriately attributed to the category: speculation, fraud…And for this we are satisfied”. For the general secretary of Fegica, Roberto Timpani“we will evaluate all the options that are on the table. Then we will examine all the issues of the sector which has a series of internal, structural crises”.
Also meeting with consumers
The government, especially the Ministry of Enterprise, also met with consumer associations on the question of fuel prices. The Codacons he remarked that the price “is also affected by phenomena of financial speculation not necessarily correlated to the cost of the barrel. As for the Platts quotations (of refined products) it is noted that from 30 December to 10 January, although they decreased, this decrease did not is reflected in the prices at the pump”. Eight proposals on the table: from price reductions for Eni distributors to a digital platform of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to allow consumers direct control of fuel costs on and off the motorway, from support to Mister Prices of associations that the Cncu (National Council of Consumers and Users) is part of the reduction and elimination of excise duties with higher taxation of extra profits, from the incentive of self-service even on the motorway with a ceiling to the increase in prices to spot checks of Guardia di Finanza on the white pumps to the determination of the maximum percentage of top-up of brokerage commissions, in all stages of the supply chain, to the increase in the possibility for motorway companies to manage the points of sale directly.