Like a recurring nightmare the expensive petrol returns cyclically to distress everyone: from commuters to transporters, from (next) holidaymakers to anyone caught between price increases, inflation, rising bills and salaries that remain inexorably stagnant. So all you have to do is rely on apps like “petrol prices” to find the most convenient station. The Palme d’Or for the least expensive distributor goes to GNP in via San Gaetano 21 a Montebelluna (Treviso), where the latest reading from the app reported 1,802 euros per liter, the price of diesel is 1,729 euros per liter. However, diesel costs less in Mestre, in via Bacchion 3, at the Auchan distributor it is sold at 1,699 euros per litre, same price also in Paduain via Benussi 8, Constantin distributor.
Distributors are asking for action
Expensive petrol has already been talked about in the past, a year ago the war in Ukraine was taken into account, the year before it was Covid’s fault, this year the conflict in the Middle East is added. The price of fuel seems never to go down. And the first to ask for intervention are the distributors. «We are the last wheel of the wagon, we do not affect the price of petrol, our margin is minimal» explains Eugenio Volpato, Venetian representative of Figisc (Italian Federation of Road Plant Managers). «It is the oil companies that set the price, we have delocalised a good part of the refining of crude oil, Marghera once refined 100% of the oil that was distributed in Veneto, it is clear that when the product comes from outside there are many intermediaries who add the their share: those who refine, transport us, those who distribute – he explains – just think that from 2021 to today the cost of refining it went from twenty dollars a barrel to sixty dollars” he explains. And how much do petrol pumps earn? «Between three and five cents per liter – he explains – we had asked the government to reduce VAT on the supply of large amounts, they said they would evaluate it as a measure in case it approached two euros per litre, but in some places we’re already there.”
The transporters
To pay a very high price the expensive petrol are the transporters. Damaso Zanardo, entrepreneur in the logistics sector: «In a country where 91% of the exchange of goods takes place by road, we do not have a policy that protects us – he explains – doing so would also have a benefit on goods: today the expensive petrol affects prices with a percentage of 30%before Covid it stopped at 15%, we are therefore at a double increase compared to 2019 – he explains – by now we have all understood that the cost of crude oil can also decrease, but that this has nothing to do with the price, excise duties, instead of decreasing, they weigh more and more.” From 2023 the government of Giorgia Meloni decided not to refinance the discount introduced by the Draghi government.
Excise duties
These are the 16 items that are part of the list of excise taxes on petrol and diesel reinstated in 2024. Financing of the Ethiopian war of 1935-1936, financing of the Suez crisis of 1956, reconstruction after the Vajont disaster of 1963, reconstruction after the Florence flood of 1966, reconstruction after the Belice earthquake of 1968. And again: reconstruction after the 1976 Friuli earthquake, reconstruction after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, financing of the 1996 mission in Bosnia, renewal of the 2004 autoferrotranvieri contractpurchase of ecological buses in 2005, earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009, financing for culture in 2011, the arrival of immigrants after the Libyan crisis in 2011, flood that hit Liguria and Tuscany in 2011, reconstruction after the earthquake in Emilia in 2012, «Save Italy» decree of 2011. «All these excise duties in a country that travels by road, in ten years only 6% of goods have moved on trains, someone will have to take matters into their own hands, sooner or later», concludes Zanardo.
