2024-05-02 19:41:37
The prices for petrol and diesel are still high. BSW chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht sees the federal government as responsible – and is calling for remedial action.
Fuel prices have continued to rise in recent weeks, and Germany is in seventh place in a European comparison. On April 22, the average price was 1.91 euros for gasoline and 1.71 euros for diesel. That’s too much, says Sahra Wagenknecht, chairwoman of the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).
“The fuel prices are far too high in Germany,” said the member of the Bundestag to the Editorial Network Germany (RND). She criticizes the fact that other countries reduce the burden on consumers when it comes to gasoline prices, but the federal government imposes a tax burden on them and thus drives up prices.
The former Left politician’s suggestion: “The federal government should reduce fuel taxes to the European standard and abolish the CO2 price,” she told the RND. In their opinion, a fuel price cap could serve as a growth engine. What remains at the pump is missing from the economy.
On average, a liter of taxed petrol costs 1.81 euros in the EU. On average, one liter of diesel costs 1.68 euros. If you exclude the taxes and duties in Germany, the prices in this country are 85 cents for gasoline and 86 cents for diesel, according to the RND.
But it doesn’t work completely without taxes. The European Union requires EU countries to impose a minimum excise tax of 0.36 euros per liter on gasoline. The Netherlands has the highest gasoline tax in the European Union at 0.82 euros per liter. Italy charges the second highest rate at 0.73 euros per liter, followed by Finland at 0.72 euros per liter. In Germany, according to the ADAC, it is 65.45 cents per liter.
Prices for E10 have fallen
However, there is also a glimmer of hope. After five increases over the week, the price for the E10 variety fell again for the first time in the ADAC’s weekly evaluation, as the traffic club announced on Wednesday last week. On a nationwide daily average on Tuesday, a liter of fuel cost 1,848 euros. That was 1.8 cents less than seven days earlier. Diesel prices fell by 3.5 cents to 1,710 euros per liter.
This means the gap between the two types of fuel grows to 13.8 cents and is larger than it has been for a long time. In mid-February they were still practically the same price, but now they are slowly approaching the long-term average from before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
The ADAC attributes the current development primarily to the fall in oil prices due to a slight easing of tensions in the Middle East. In addition, the recently somewhat stronger euro also helped. With diesel, there could also be a seasonal effect: With the end of the heating season, the price advantage of the fuel compared to gasoline often increases slightly in the spring because diesel and heating oil are similar.