Back to normal: fuel prices are rising again

From July 1, the excise duty on fuel will be increased again, making the price at the pump more expensive. Motorists will pay an additional 13.8 cents for a liter of petrol, bringing the price to more than 2 euros per liter. “The excise tax cut boosted purchasing power a bit, but in the end it didn’t help the income groups that needed it most,” says Martin van Garderen, consumer economist from ING.

That is why he understands the decision to reverse the excise tax cut. Van Garderen says the advantage of the reduction in the excise tax on fuel is mainly due to people who drive long distances, and those who are often not on low incomes. He also believes it makes “economic” sense for this to end.

Reducing excise duties is not appropriate to keep the lowest incomes out of the wind and support purchasing power. Moreover, it involves a lot of extra money, which leads to a rise in the national debt, while this money can also be spent on other useful things.

When we introduced this measure last year, the estimated cost was around €1 billion in 9 months, which comes to about €1.5 billion in total. This is really a lot of money for such a procedure.

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From an economic point of view, cash out can increase inflation, he says. From this perspective, it is better to take specific measures. A downturn does not necessarily mean bad news for the economy, because simply injecting money into the economy can also have an inflationary effect. At the moment we are not waiting for this, although, of course, the inflation rate is moving in the right direction.

Busy times

Because of expected price increases, gas stations are expecting huge crowds today. “We already noticed this yesterday and the day before yesterday,” says Ewot Klok, President of the Power and Gas Stations Association (BETA). He has not yet seen people carrying jugs of water in the back seat. We also retain some control over that. It shouldn’t be the case for people to take a back seat full of petrol.

We are a transportation country.

Although Van Garderen thinks it’s good to get back to “normal”, Klok thinks it’s stupid “to cross the border so soon and have to deal with the price difference after a few kilometres.”

Moreover, according to him, a large group is affected by this. We’re talking about the vast majority here: small and medium-sized businesses that depend on fuel. We helped them with that, because if gasoline became more expensive, bringing a head of lettuce or a rod of Mars into the store would also become more expensive because it would be charged.

Read also | Pump holders expect traffic jams at the pump on Friday due to the excise tax hike