In January, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was only in Vladimir Putin’s mind and in the fears of Western intelligence. But the price of gasoline had already begun to climb. And to notice this, in addition to motorists and transporters, were also the state coffers: which in the first month of the year saw 1.13 billion arriving from excise duties on fuels, that is 23.5% more than the revenue generated 12 months before.
The leap is strong. In all of 2021, which is compared with a 2020 semi-paralyzed by the first waves of Covid and by the brake on economic activities, the increase in excise taxes generated at the distributor had been 12.1%, in practice half of the surge registered in January 2022.
But it is only a debut. Data from the Ministry of Economic Development say that in the first weeks of the year the average price of gasoline stood at € 1,765 per liter, and that of diesel fuel was € 1,632. Already in February, petrol traveled on average at 1,848, and diesel fuel to 1,720: the further boost was therefore 4.7% in the first case and 5.4% in the second, with prices still very far from those considered with a certain scare on the distributors’ boards these days.
Excise at the center of attention of politics
Precisely for this reason, excise duties immediately returned to the center of political attention. Also because together with “speculation” they are the perfect enemy to point to angry truckers and motorists. “We need an intervention on excise duties”, the Five Stars explained yesterday after the alarm of the former Prime Minister Conte on the “total emergency” in which the country finds itself. It is necessary to “block VAT and excise duties for a period of time”, claimed the leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini, and from Italia Viva Davide Faraone asked to “prosecute speculators and remove excise duties”. Precisely.
At the Ministry of Economy the dossier is on the table. But the excise attack is less straightforward than expected. For two reasons.