Fuel excises go up

The excises levied on gas will go up by 85 euros/tonne following the modification of Emergency Ordinance 158/2001 (regulating excises) by another Government Ordinance, government sources said. This is due to the new component to be included in excises after this ordinance comes into force: the road tax, which has been included in the fuel price so far. The amounts derived from the road tax used to be deposited in a special public road fund. Once the fund was dissolved, the tax was lowered and included in the excises. The road tax amounted to 125 euros/tonne for gas and 110 euros/tonne for diesel oil. Theoretically, the excises should have increased by including one of the two above-mentioned amounts. The Government, however, decided to increase the excises by a lesser amount. Therefore, 40 euros will be cut from the gas retail price. The gas and diesel retail prices include a series of taxes and duties – excises, VAT, a special fund for oil products and a special road fund. As soon as the normative act comes into force, the road fund will be eliminated and the bulk of the road tax will be included in excises. The leaded gasoline excise will go up from 319.6 euros/tonne to 404 euros/tonne, while the unleaded gasoline excise will go up from 262 euro/tonne to 347 euro/tonne. ZF