The relief for drivers targeted by the reduction in fuel tax is becoming smaller and smaller. Diesel now costs more than two euros per liter again.
For the first time since the tax cut, diesel costs more than two euros on a daily average nationwide. For Wednesday, the ADAC reported a value of 2.007 euros per liter on Thursday. That’s 1.5 cents more than the day before. The price for E10 stagnated at 1.948 euros per liter.
ADAC criticizes price development
Diesel is almost as expensive as it was before the tax cut on June 1, which was 16.7 cents per liter for the fuel. The price of May 31 was only 3.7 cents short. The development is going in the absolutely wrong direction, said an ADAC spokesman. “Prices should go down, not up.” By midday on Thursday, there was still no clear trend in fuel prices.
Ifo President Clemens Fuest warned of unjustified outrage: “There is a lot of scolding at the moment. But prices are also rising on world markets,” he said at the Ifo annual meeting in Munich. After the tax cut, prices at German gas stations fell significantly. However, it is astonishing that politicians have announced that they will ensure that this relief is passed on to drivers, said Fuest. Companies still decide for themselves what prices they charge for their products and what they can assert on the market: “That’s legitimate.” When the state intervenes in prices, it is always problematic.
Europe’s highest increases in Germany
Germany is not alone with the rising fuel prices. They have also increased in most countries across Europe, as shown by the weekly figures published today by the EU Commission. If you calculate out the amount of the tax cut in Germany, the local increase from May 30 to June 6 is one of the highest in Europe for both diesel and E10.
The petroleum industry has recently referred to rising costs in connection with rising prices. Other voices, on the other hand, point to market concentration.
Expert warns against the abolition of the tank discount
The chairman of the monopoly commission, Jürgen Kühling, warned in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” against abolishing the controversial tank discount, “since this would drive up fuel prices”. In principle, however, he sees the instrument critically. “It would have been better not to have been introduced,” said the chairman of the federal government’s advisory body.
Prices at gas stations have risen to unprecedented levels since the beginning of the Ukraine war. According to ADAC data, diesel reached its previous maximum on March 10 with a nationwide daily average of EUR 2.321 per liter and E10 with EUR 2.203 on March 14. In April, both fuels were then temporarily below two euros again, before a new upward trend began, which was only briefly interrupted by the tax relief. According to calculations by the federal government, the federal government will receive 3.15 billion euros less due to the reduction in energy tax.
