Gasoline: in just a few hours, the online petition, launched through the change.org platform, asking to stop VAT and excise duties on fuel, has already reached around 20 thousand signatures.
The organizers explain that in Italy fuel has reached very high cost levels, but 60% of what is paid is not for the raw material, but for the taxes imposed by the Italian Government. The so-called Excise, are fuel taxes introduced by the state to make money quickly.
"Today, every time you fill up with fuel, you pay 16 excise taxes, one of which was introduced in 1935 by Benito Mussolini to finance the war in Ethiopia. And then again: you are paying for the Vajont tragedy of 1963 and the flood in Florence in 1966, and many others. Read the complete list of taxes that the State has been making you pay for years, in the text of the petition that you find under the photo. Do you think it is normal to pay such old taxes? Emanuele asks the Government to eliminate the oldest excise taxes and lower all the others. Italians are exhausted, they can no longer bear millstones in their pockets and they are not an ATM, it is time to say enough!"
Italy - at a European level - is among the countries where the cost of fuel has reached very high levels.
It should be noted that 27% of the cost of gasoline is determined by the wholesale price of oil, while for diesel the percentage rises to 32%.
The gross margin (revenues) of the supply chains amounts to approximately 8-9%, which means that the remaining 65% for petrol and 60% for diesel of the price are derived from taxes and VAT.
The introduction of excise duties is a maneuver used by governments from the 30s to today, to find money quickly following sudden calamities or emergencies. The principle is to withdraw a very small contribution in a constant way, without burdening excessively with each refueling done. Applying excise duties on the cost of fuel has made it possible to face wars, natural disasters and more.
The principle was – and is – so effective that, over the decades, we have seen an excise duty added from time to time. This has consequently caused the price of fuel to increase steadily and almost imperceptibly.
However, excise duty upon excise duty, the price of fuel in Italy is the highest in Europe.
In detail:
€0,000981 for the financing of the Ethiopian war of 1935-1936;
€0,00723 for the financing of the 1956 Suez crisis;
€0,00516 for reconstruction after the Vajont disaster in 1963;
€0,00516 for reconstruction after the 1966 Florence flood;
€0,00516 for reconstruction after the 1968 Belice earthquake;
€0,0511 for reconstruction after the 1976 Friuli earthquake;
€0,0387 for reconstruction after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake;
€0,114 to finance the mission in Bosnia in 1996;
€0,02 for the renewal of the 2004 bus and tram drivers' contract;
€0,005 for the purchase of eco-friendly buses in 2005;
€0,0051 to deal with the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake;
€0,0071 for culture funding in 2011;
€0,04 to cope with the arrival of immigrants after the Libyan crisis of 2011;
€0,0089 to deal with the flood that hit Liguria and Tuscany in 2011;
€0,082 for the “Salva Italia” decree of 2011;
€0,02 for reconstruction after the 2012 earthquake in Emilia.
At this time, if the Government wants to help us citizens, it must definitively eliminate the oldest excise duties (ref. from the Ethiopian War to the L'Aquila Earthquake - € 0,257591 less) and temporarily suspend the remaining excise duties and VAT (€ 0,158 + 22% less on the wholesale price) until our country is able to be autonomous from Russian energy sources (ref. Min. Cingolani - 30 months from today).
“Only in this way can the Italian economic system be calmed by the continuous increases that will be reflected in all essential goods. We cannot tolerate, after 30 months of pandemic, further millstones on our pockets”.
Article published on March 15, 2022 - 07pm
