Romania's economy minister proposes slashing excise duty on fuels by 50%

Romania's minister of economy, Adrian Caciu, forwarded to the ruling coalition leaders a proposal to slash temporarily to half the excise duty charged for fuels - including car fuels. According to News.ro, the coalition's leaders endorsed the proposal.

The end-user price would drop significantly, by some RON 1 per litre (15%) for the price of petrol and diesel.

Liberal leader Florin Citu (PNL), however, warned that the authors of this idea should be held responsible in case the end-user prices fail to decrease. The cost of such a measure for the Government's budget would be in the range of RON 3 bln to RON 4 bln (EUR 0.6-0.8 bln), he said, News.ro reported.

The leaders of the ruling coalition also agreed to extend for another month the 'cap and subsidy' scheme' that expires at the end of March. Under this scheme, households and small enterprises pay a maximal price for the natural gas and electricity they use, while those using less than a certain threshold are provided with subsidies as well.

The excise duty on petrol in Romania, in percentage terms, is the second-lowest in the European Union, according to European Commission data quoted by Wall-Street.ro. With 44% of the final price of the fuel, it exceeds only that in Poland, which accounts for 37%.

The situation is about the same for diesel. Romania's excise duty of 42% (as high as in Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Sweden) is higher only than that in Poland (34%).

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