“We have no information that margins are growing faster than prices on stock exchanges. Our prices are also still lower than in neighboring states,” said Schillerová in Sunday’s Partia na Prima.
According to her, the Ministry of Finance is monitoring the situation by monitoring the prices on gas station totems and comparing them with developments on the stock exchange, and it will have the first data from the monitoring of fuel retailers’ margins on Monday. She added that she is intensively negotiating with representatives of the petroleum industry and especially with the management of the state company Čepro.
The leader of the opposition ODS, Martin Kupka, reminded in the Prime Minister’s debate that, due to fluctuating prices as a result of the war in Iran and the surrounding area, the Civic Democrats propose to quickly approve a temporary reduction of the consumption tax on diesel and gasoline by 1.70 kroner per liter. “In four months, it would mean a shortfall (of the state budget) of about five billion,” he said. At the same time, he called on the government to negotiate more intensively with representatives of pumpers.
Coalition politicians, however, do not support the reduction of consumption tax in order to solve price increases. For now, according to them, it is necessary to focus on monitoring the margins of fuel sellers.
Fuel discounts for motorists would depend mainly on how the pumpers would reflect the tax reduction in their prices. In addition to reducing consumption tax, according to some experts, the government could limit the increase in fuel prices by releasing state reserves for the EuroOil network, which is operated by the state-owned enterprise Čepro. According to government politicians, there is no reason for this, because gas stations do not dry up.
The average price of diesel in the Czech Republic exceeded 41 crowns this week and is the highest in three and a half years. Gasoline is also rapidly becoming more expensive, Natural 95 cost an average of CZK 37.33 per liter on Thursday.
Excise duty on diesel is now 9.95 crowns per liter, on gasoline 12.84 crowns per liter. “The right moment for fiscal measures has not come at the moment, which does not rule out that it will not happen,” declared Schillerová, pointing out that the prices of gasoline and diesel in the Czech Republic are lower than in neighboring countries. Kupka thinks that the reduction of consumption tax can support the economy. “This is a step that is anti-inflationary, that is responsible,” he said.
In response to the rapid rise in fuel prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the previous government of Petr Fiala (ODS) temporarily reduced the consumption tax on gasoline and diesel by 1.50 crowns per liter in 2022.
However, the effect of this step in the following months was partially dampened by rising oil prices and wholesale fuel prices. In practice, motorists could only see a smaller drop in prices than would correspond to the full amount of the tax. According to economists, a part of the tax reduction at that time could also end up in higher profits of gas stations.
The main solution to the current problem of higher fuel prices is, according to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the SPD government movement, Tomio Okamura, the end of the conflict in the Middle East. “We have a price law that allows margins to be capped, but it is the most extreme solution,” he said in Partia.
Sports Minister Boris Šťastný (Motorists) stated that it is necessary to look for targeted solutions, not general solutions, but now, according to him, we should wait one to two weeks. “The Hungarian way of capping prices does not make sense,” said then the chairman of the opposition movement STAN Vít Rakušan. According to him, in addition to checking margins, there should be a debate on a short-term reduction in consumption tax.
