Failure to extend the excise cut? "A choice of social justice" .
Giorgia Meloni claims it, who in a video on social media replies to the criticisms (even from the allies of Forza Italia) on the increase in fuel tariffs , largely due to the government's choice not to extend the excise cut wanted by Mario Draghi.
« It would have cost 10 billion, instead of spreading that money on everyone we decided to concentrate resources on those who needed it most. We have made a choice that I claim and which is one of social justice », affirms the Prime Minister.
To cut excise duties, Meloni adds, " we could not have increased the health fund, the household audience to calm domestic bills, the credits of SMEs , all these measures would have been cancelled".
«They tell us that we have miscalculated – he adds -, I have heard everything, but I am monitoring the price of petrol. The data published on the Made in Italy ministry website was 1.812, a price we would like to be lower. But where was the press when the price was even higher? I don't remember the campaigns of these days in previous years ».
Finally, claims the prime minister, "during the election campaign I never promised to cut excise duties. A video from 2019 in which I talk about the need to cut excise duties on petrol is circulating from many sides. And since the government did not decide to change the rule of the previous government, it was said that I was inconsistent. It is no coincidence that that video is from 2019, I am still convinced that it would be a great thing to cut excise duties on petrol, but they come to terms with reality and it will not escape the fact that from 2019 to today the world has changed and requires us to make choices ".
Yesterday the government passed an ad hoc decree which provides that price monitoring will no longer be weekly but daily. Among other measures, a ceiling on price increases on the motorways, the obligation for managers to display signs indicating the national average price established by the Ministry of the Environment next to the pump price .
"Most of the gas station attendants are honest and responsible and we have to intervene to protect them," claims Meloni. " In cdm we have decided to strengthen the sanctioning rules for those who fail to comply with the communications required by law and we have established that every petrol station should display the average daily price ".
In the majority there are different views: if Lega and FdI speak of speculation by petrol stations, for Forza Italia the price increase is exclusively due to the failure to extend the cut in excise duties .
Yesterday, according to Codacons data, the peak in Sardinia was reached in Poltu Quatu (Arzachena), with petrol at 2.199 and diesel at 2.299 per litre .
(Unioneonline/L)