Romania's competition watchdog to check prices on local fuel market

Romania’s Competition Council has launched a sector investigation on the local fuel market as the pre-tax fuel prices in Romania have slightly exceeded the EU average in the last year. The institution wants to check how the prices were formed, but is also interested to see how the EU directive on mandatory fuel inventories has been transposed, said Bogdan Chiritoiu, Competition Council president, reports local News.ro. “Especially in the first half of last year, the pre-tax prices of gasoline and diesel in Romania were higher than in most EU countries (...) which is a new phenomenon. Traditionally, fuel prices in Romania, without taxes, have used to be slightly lower than the EU average,” Chiritoiu explained. He added: “It is half-true that the fuel prices in Romania are higher than in Austria. The question is why they have been higher than the EU average in the last year. We are looking for the answer.” Fuel prices reached the peak in the first quarter of 2016. Now they are still above the EU average, according to Chiritoiu. editor@romania-insider.com