With the huge rise in the price of petrol, the cost of a self-driving car on the motorway is €2,019 per liter, and it has renewed the debate over tax charges on fuel. The opposition is calling for it to be cut as well, in light of the promises made by the right and Prime Minister Meloni herself in the election campaign. «Fuel costs continue to rise and there is no concrete solution from the government. Predictable volatility displays signals with an average price. Meanwhile, Italians’ pockets are still always the losers. Where was the promised reduction when they were in opposition? asks the vice president of the Senate Mariolina Castellon (M5s) while Raffaella Payta, senator and national coordinator of FIFA Italia, quips: «A great success for Meloni’s government. The increase in the price of petrol does not stop: it has now been growing for 16 consecutive days. Violations continue and announced checks are proving ineffective.”
In Italy it is known that excise duties on petrol and diesel are particularly high: they represent 30% of the cost of petrol and 34% of the cost of diesel.. The price at the pump is actually made up of three factors: raw material cost, production fee, and value-added tax, which is 22% in our country. According to a report by the energy company Acea, in 2022 Italy was the European country with the highest excise tax on diesel and the second on petrol after the Netherlands.
Lowering the excise duty may bring down fuel prices, but for the state, these are essential taxes to fill their coffers. So much so that no government has intervened in a structural way in this issue. The last measure taken by the Draghi government to control tariffs was: from March to November 2022, a reduction in the excise tax by 25 euro cents per liter or 30.5 cents taking into account the value-added tax (on fuels, the value-added tax is calculated on the industrial price plus a fee production).
How much are they worth to the state
Tax fees are worth gold to the state’s revenue. According to the State General Accounting Office, in the first six months of 2023 there was “an increase in revenue from excise duties on energy products, their derivatives and similar products (mineral oils) (+1.856 billion euros, +20.3 percent) compared to the level of revenue in 2022, which included the effects of the reduction in specific excise rates to contain energy costs.”
Excise duty history
But where does the excise duty come from that we must remember, which has been incorporated since 1995. The first such taxes on petroleum date back to the fascist era. It was introduced in 1935 and was used to fund the Ethiopian war for 1.90 lire approximately €0.00981. Then others followed: 14 lire for the Suez crisis in 1956, and 10 lire for the Fagunet tragedy in 1963. Not forgetting 10 lire for dealing with the flood of Florence in 1966 and another 10 lire for the Bliss earthquake in 1968. Then another 99 lire was added for the Friuli earthquake of 1976, 75 lira for the 1980 Irpinja earthquake, 205 lira for the mission in Lebanon in 1982 and 22 lira for the mission in Bosnia in 1996. Addition of recent increases for the reconstruction of L’Aquila, for the earthquake in Emilia and the director’s remuneration for 2014.
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