Romania started the year with lower fuel prices after the Parliament removed the extra excise on fuel but the drop was lower than previously estimated because the regular excise on fuel was adjusted upward, stirring controversies.

Finance minister Florin Citu explained that the excise duties charged for car fuels were revised upward in line with the consumer price inflation, as of January 2020, a move that adds to the elimination of the supplementary excise duty enforced in 2017 resulting in a decrease of the end-user prices by some RON 0.31-0.32 per litre (some 5.5% in the case of the lowest-grade fuels).

The mechanism of annual revision in line with the consumer price inflation is specified in the Fiscal Code, minister Citu explained. The elimination of the special excise duty would have brought the value of the excise below the minimum levels set by the European Union’s regulations.

The correction for the consumer price inflation gave the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD) the opportunity to claim the new Government “hikes the taxes”. After losing power, in November 2019, PSD promoted in the Parliament the bill on eliminating the extra excise on fuel together with a set of other measures aimed at putting the public budget under pressure.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)