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Next Saturday, in the extraordinary Council of Ministers, the Government will approve limiting VAT on electricity to 5%. However, this has caused other energy sectors to position themselves in favor of receiving similar treatment.
This is the case of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Entrepreneurs (Ceees), the employers’ association that represents the interests of gas stations in Spain. “At a current time, with runaway inflation and worrying economic prospects, any measure that translates into higher disposable income for consumers is welcome,” they say in a statement.
However, they stress that “they cannot understand the reasons that prevent the Administration from taking a similar measure for fuels.” For this, they consider that the Government should fight, within the Union, for a reduction in VAT on fuels, in a similar way to how it did for the Iberian exception in the electricity market in the European Council.
This measure is something that Ceees has been requesting for some time now —the last time, in February, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and prices skyrocketed—; However, the only thing that the Spanish Government has implemented is the bonus of 20 cents per liter, included in Royal Decree-Law 6/2022.
For the association, this mechanism “although well-intentioned, is poorly designed and poorly executed” and has put service stations at risk, particularly SMEs and independents. None, they say, has received a refund of the subsidized amount.
The reduction of VAT for electricity companies is one of the measures contemplated by the Executive to alleviate growing inflation. Another of those planned is that the measure of 20 cents per liter be extended, which was expected to be in effect only until June.
This decision corresponds to a time when gasoline and diesel have reached record highs in their average prices: 1,941 euros for gasoline and 1,876 for diesel. If the public bonus were not taken into account, these prices would exceed the barrier of two euros, as the figures from the EU Oil Bulletin show.
These prices assume that filling a 55-litre tank with gasoline would cost 107 euros, while for diesel it would be 103. These prices are 26 and 29 euros higher, respectively, than a year ago.
For the CEO of the Moure Group, Manel Montero, «we have to see what is behind the rise in gasoline prices. If the Brent barrel has risen 5%, what cannot be is that we distributors find ourselves with increases of 30% in refining. Their costs may also have gone up, but it’s hard to explain that magnitude.”
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