DECO PROteste argued on Wednesday that the Government should strengthen the reduction in the Excise Duty on Petroleum and Energy Products (ISP) and implement a structural change in fuel taxation, rather than continuing to respond with temporary measures during periods of energy crisis. The association believes that whenever fuel prices exceed two euros per liter, the reduction in ISP should be more significant and translate into effective relief for families, also calling for the State to go beyond fiscal neutrality and directly assume part of the effort through public expenditure to support consumers.
This position comes following an increase of 12 cents per liter in diesel and nine cents in gasoline this week, representing the largest weekly increase in gasoline since 2022. Initial projections by the ACP pointed to even larger increases, but the three-cent discount on ISP applied by the executive partially mitigated the impact. In the week of September 7, the average price of regular gasoline stood at 2.093 euros per liter and regular diesel at 2.104 euros per liter.
The executive responded by announcing over 700 million euros for transparency and oversight measures, in addition to strengthening the regulatory authority's sanctioning powers throughout the petroleum system chain. The extension of the 10-cent-per-liter agricultural diesel discount and the solidarity gas bottle measure was confirmed, which provides an extraordinary discount of 25 euros per bottle until the end of the year. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Sea will have a budget of 18 million euros to support fuel price increases, with 13 million euros destined for the fishing sector.
DECO noted that the tax burden on fuel prices remains at historically high levels and that the State's response should not be limited to compensating for the increase in VAT revenue. By August 2026, inflation will have reached 3.3%, while energy product prices will have increased by 12.2%, according to data from the National Statistics Institute. The association advocated that part of the additional revenue generated by price increases should be used to effectively reduce the tax burden on fuels and protect household budgets.
