Fuel down next week, when the ISP will be reviewed – iOnline

Both petrol and diesel will suffer a price decrease as from Monday. The reduction should be around one to 1.5 cents per liter. This ateração will occur in the same week that the government is preparing to revise the tax on oil products (ISP).

 
 

The government will review the tax on the 12th of May, three months after the increase in this tax. According to the calculation formula already advanced by the executive, the descent should be around two cents.

 
 

The worsening ISP entered into force on February 12, before the state budget for 2016 and penalized fuel in six cents per liter.

 
 

Despite continuing increases in fuel prices observed since the beginning of the year – gasoline has risen 12 cents and diesel 11 cents – the executive indicated that the ISP review would be done quarterly. The first is scheduled for May, followed by August and November.

 
 

Contacted by i, the Finance Ministry only confirmed the date, but did not reveal how much is it going to be the descent. However, Deputy minister, Eduardo Cabrita, had admitted that “starting from a -base value- reference of 4.5 cents per liter, could lead to a change of one cent in the ISP”.

 
 

All in all, it is expected to come to attend to a reduction in the order of two cents both in gasoline prices and diesel – still well below the increases that we have seen in the market.

 
 

The average reference price per liter of petrol in Portugal is currently 1.45 euros, while the diesel worth 1,168 euros, according to the Directorate General for Energy and Geology (DGEG). They are maximum of August last year.

 
 

Tax rate

 
 

Only the first three months of the year, the tax burden represented, on average, about 68% of the final price of gasoline 95 and 60% diesel. There was a cash inflow of EUR 610 million to the state with the tax on petroleum products, an increase of 15% compared to 2015. And only with the worsening of the ISP, the government hopes to raise 120 million euros this year.

 
 

The last Brussels report shows that after taxes, the average price of petrol and diesel practiced in Portugal is the highest among the 28 countries of the European Union. The same data also indicate that taxation is the main factor that weighs in fuel prices.