Croatia’s government announced to cut further the excise duty and sales margins on motor fuels to mitigate the impact of rising global oil prices.
In March, the government reduced the excise duties on petrol by 0.40 kuna (0.053 euro) per litre and on Monday it cut it by a further 0.40 kuna.
“We have decided to further reduce excise duties on petrol and diesel,” Prime Minister Andej Plenkovic said in a statement. “The total reduction of excise duties, in the context of the ongoing crisis of rising energy prices, is 0.80 kuna per litre of unleaded petrol,” added the Prime Minister.
The excise duties on diesel will be cut by a further 0.20 kuna, following a similar decrease of 0.20 kuna in March. The government also reduced by an additional 0.10 kuna the margin of traders for petrol, diesel and blue diesel.
From now on the government will update the fuel prices every two, and not every week as before. The regulation will be in force for 30 days after the government will reassess the situation.
As a result of the new measures, the maximum price of petrol will be 13.50 kuna per litre, 13.08 kuna per litre of diesel and 9.45 kuna per litre of blue diesel.
The government introduced price caps, VAT cuts and subsidies to help households, companies and farmers tackle soaring energy prices at the beginning of April. The package is estimated to be almost 5 billion kuna (664 million euros).
The Prime Minister noted that in the next few weeks, the government will see what else it can do regarding petroleum products adding that public transport subsidies are also one of the possible options.
As rising fuel prices loom over the upcoming harvesting season the Croatian Prime Minister reminded that the government adopted several programmes to help agriculture and will ensure that the harvest is carried out in accordance with the usual schedule.
The government stated that there will be no shortage of fuel. “According to the law, we have stocks of oil and oil products for 90 days. I dare say there will be no shortage,” said the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Davor Filipović after the announcement of the government interventions.
