The government backtracks to stem the protest of petrol stations and patch the mess on the record price of petrol. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced that she will review the decree approved just two days ago: pressed by the fire of her own allies, after the unjustified accusations of speculation on fuel prices, she agreed to modify the rule that canceled the discount on excise. The first step today will be a meeting with the petrol station attendants at Palazzo Chigi to convince them to pick it up strike of 25 and 26 January.
U-turn on petrol: the government changes the decree
The first to indicate the change of front was the Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti at the question time in Parliament: "The government reserves the right to adopt measures to reduce excise duties on the basis of a provision which will allow action in this sense in relation to the verified increase in fuel prices,” he says. The clarifications arrive immediately: there is no cut in excise duties for now, but if it should be useful, it can be adopted if there is one 2% deviation of the cost of petrol in a specific period of time, the quarter.
Shortly after Giorgetti's intervention, the cabinet integrates the text already approved last Tuesday: "In the presence of a possible increase in the price of crude oil and therefore the relative increase in VAT in a reference quarter, the higher revenue collected can be used to finance reductions in the final price at the pump". The final announcement came in the evening from Giorgia Meloni herself. “In the FdI program – she says – there is no cut in excise duties. We wrote sterilization: if the price rises above a certain threshold, what the State collects in addition to VAT will be used to lower the price. And that is exactly what our decree provides for”. That is true, if it refers to the text changed just yesterday. However, the text approved 48 hours earlier did not provide for it.
The other signal launched by the government is the extension of petrol coupons: they will also be tax-free beyond March, until the end of 2023. Finally, Meloni announces, the decision to "reimburse commuters of the sum they spend on season tickets".
Petrol: the petrol station strike, meeting today at Palazzo Chigi
“I will meet the category and tell them that there is no desire to pass the buck. All our interventions are to control inflation”, Giorgia Meloni affirms with two declarations first on Tg1 and then on Tg5, assuring on TV that on petrol and diesel “what the State collects in addition to VAT will be used to lower the price".
These statements will be enough to appease thewrath of gas station attendants? The managers have announced a strike for January 25 and 26, with the presidium under Montecitorio. The goal is “to put an end to this wave of mud against a category of honest workers and try to restore the truth", explain together Faib-Confesercenti, Fegica, Figisc-Confcommercio, who openly accuse the government of having increased the price of fuel by abolishing the discount on excise duties, however discharging "the responsibility managers".
