Despite the discount, it is not cheaper at the petrol stations. According to one expert, one of the reasons for this is the concentration of the market at refineries and mineral oil companies.
The effect of the tax break on fuel continues to melt away. On a nationwide daily average on Tuesday, diesel was only 5.2 cents cheaper than the day before the reduction, according to the ADAC.
E10 was 20.3 cents cheaper. Both are well below the level of tax relief, which is 35.2 cents for petrol and 16.7 cents for diesel. In addition, Diesel prepared to exceed the mark of 2 euros again.
ADAC: fuel prices are clearly too high
Specifically, E10 cost 1.948 euros per liter on Tuesday. That’s 0.6 cents more than on Monday. Diesel increased in price by 1.6 cents to 1.992 euros. However, the upward trend continued on Wednesday morning: E10 was around 1 cent more expensive than in the previous day, diesel around 2 cents. If this trend continues, diesel will probably also rise to over 2 euros per liter on a nationwide daily average, says a spokesman. The ADAC rates the fuel prices as clearly too high.
Tomaso Duso, competition expert and head of the Companies and Markets department at the DIW Berlin economic research institute, says that, as expected, the tank discount was not passed on in full by the oil companies and refineries. “The reason for this is that the refiners have market power. This is not necessarily malicious behavior, but the result of high market concentration at refineries and oil companies.” Economists had warned against it, but politicians didn’t want to hear it. “The tank discount is now gone.”
Agreements cannot be proven
The President of the Federal Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, once again dampened expectations on Bayerischer Rundfunk that collusion in the mineral oil industry could be proven. The market is very transparent. This would allow companies to react “at lightning speed” to price changes by the competition. “Of course, this can give drivers the impression that this can only be an agreement if I find similar prices everywhere.”
