the discount on fuel excise duties ends: petrol and diesel increase. Here’s how much more a full tank costs and what changes.
From today, Saturday 4 July, getting petrol or diesel costs more again. This is not a new sudden oil shock, nor an uncontrolled rush of international stock markets, but the end of the last discount on excise duties decided by the Government to contain the price of fuel in the most complicated months of the energy crisis. A measure born as an extraordinary intervention, then extended and progressively reduced, which now reaches the end of the line and reports the bill directly on the service station display boards.
The expected increase is around 6.1 cents per litre, because the residual tax discount had now dropped to 5 cents, which becomes just over 6 with the effect of VAT. Translated into daily life it means that a 50 liter tank costs around 3 euros more than in recent days. A figure which, taken individually, may seem small, but which immediately becomes heavier for those who use the car every day, for commuters, for families with multiple cars, for hauliers, for artisans and for all those workers who cannot simply choose to leave the vehicle in the garage.
Because the discount on excise duties ends
The excise duty cut was introduced at a time when the oil market was moving at much more tense levels and Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, was trading at high prices, fueled by geopolitical tensions and fears about supplies. At the beginning the discount was much more significant, equal to 24.4 cents per litre, then the Government reduced it in stages, up to the latest version of 5 cents per liter for petrol and diesel.
The reason is above all budgetary. Each extension costs hundreds of millions to the state coffers and the entire package of measures on excise duties has already exceeded two billion euros. The Government, therefore, aims to move away from the emergency logic and return to the ordinary system, counting on the fact that the price of oil has returned to more manageable levels compared to the peaks of recent months.
The executive’s reasoning is simple: if the barrel cools, the market must absorb the drop and pass it on to consumers more quickly, without making a tax discount created to deal with an exceptional phase permanent. It is no coincidence that the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, has reminded oil companies of the need to adapt prices more quickly to the decline in international prices.
How much do petrol and diesel cost from today
With the end of the discount, petrol in self mode on the ordinary network goes to around 1.86 euros per litre, while diesel is close to 1.94 euros per litre. On the motorway, where prices are traditionally higher, green fuel can reach around 1.95 euros per litre, while diesel can go back above 2 euros.
The difference will not be identical in every distributor, because the prices at the pump also depend on the policies of the individual companies, the area, the ordinary or motorway network, the self-service or self-service mode and the times with which each system updates the price lists. But the direction is clear: the tax benefit disappears and the final price once again incorporates the entire burden of the excise duty.
For motorists the most immediate calculation is that of full fuel. On a 50 liter tank the charge is around 3.05 euros; on 60 liters it rises to around 3.66 euros. It is not a blow comparable to the worst moments of the energy crisis, but it is still an increase that arrives at the beginning of July, that is, in the midst of summer departures, when millions of Italians set out on the road and when every change in fuel immediately becomes more visible.
The effect on consumption and daily spending
The price of fuel does not only affect those who refuel. Petrol and diesel have a direct impact on private travel, but also indirectly on a long chain of costs: freight transport, logistics, deliveries, professional activities, tourism, trade. For this reason, every increase at the pump is perceived as a broader signal on the cost of living, especially in a phase in which many families continue to carefully measure their monthly expenses.
The end of the excise duty discount, therefore, is not just technical fiscal policy news. It is service news, because it immediately changes the price paid to the distributor, and at the same time it is a political test, because it measures the Government’s ability to accompany the exit from extraordinary interventions without fueling new social tensions.
The match now moves on to the next few days. If the price of oil remains stable and the companies quickly pass on the reductions in prices to the price lists, the increase caused by the end of the discount could be absorbed without new interventions. However, if petrol and diesel were to return to racing, the pressure for a new extension or targeted measures could quickly reopen.
For the moment, however, there is only one message for motorists: from today, filling up costs more, not due to a new increase in crude oil, but because the last tax shield which in recent months had artificially kept pump prices lower is running out.
