The extension is only until April 10th. And a legal and accounting acrobatics will be needed to finance the second extension of the fuel excise duty cut, decided by the Council of Ministers on April 30th. The decree law approved Thursday provides for a duration only until May 10th (value 146.5 million). To reach the three weeks announced by the Prime Minister, another decree will be needed, this time from a ministerial one. It will arrive in a few days, when approximately another 200 million in resources are expected to arrive from the increased VAT revenue collected with the recent increases.
At a press conference following the Cabinet meeting, Giorgia Meloni announced a 21-day extension of the cut, starting today, May 2. The reduction for diesel remained at 20 cents per liter (with a final saving of 24.4 cents at the pump, given the simultaneous reduction in VAT). For gasoline (which had increased much less than diesel in recent weeks), the cut was reduced to 5 cents per liter. However, the text only states the cut is for eight days. Codacons immediately asked the government to clarify the actual duration of the measure. The ministries involved (Economy, Business, and Energy Security) and then Palazzo Chigi immediately clarified the extension—a commitment also indicated in the explanatory report of the decree—will last until May 22, as announced by the Prime Minister.
The period from the 11th to the 22nd will be covered by a specific ministerial decree that will arrive close to the first deadline.
But why this two-part extension? Palazzo Chigi explains that the second intervention will arrive in the coming days, as soon as the available resources from the VAT increase on fuel are quantified, expected within about ten days. Government sources revealed on Thursday that the funds would be covered by the Antitrust sanctions and the VAT increase. Evidently, the proceeds from the fines had already been quantified, while the tax increase was yet to be determined. Therefore, the government had to split the extension in two.
