Throughout Europe, motorists are often the target of governments to increase revenue when coffers are depleted. But successive governments in Lisbon have easily beaten off most of their EU counterparts when it comes to taxing cars, fuel and charging tolls.
Figures out on Thursday morning have once again highlighted the state’s seemingly insatiable appetite to tax motorists. The Competition Authority found that the taxes on diesel have risen by 56 percent while those on unleaded fuel have grown by 26 percent since 2004.
With the state currently raking in an average of nine million euros a day from fuel, the research indicates that 63 percent of the retail value of unleaded fuel consists of taxes, while 56 percent of the money spent on a litre of diesel reverts to the Portuguese state.
Back in 2016, the current Government increased the ISP fuel tax by six cents a litre. At the time, politicians argued that the state was losing millions of euros in taxes due to the low oil prices practised at the time and introduced the surcharge. In response to a consumer backlash, it pledged to revise the price of petrol on a quarterly basis and would eliminate the surcharge once oil prices had climbed. Two years later, oil prices are at a new high, but the Government have only once revised the surcharge – in late 2016.
The Competition Authority says in its research published on Thursday that “Portugal’s competitiveness in terms of fuel prices in relation to neighbouring Spain is significantly reduced” once taxes are added into the equation.
The report was compiled upon request of Energy Secretary Jorge Seguro Sanches, with consumer and transport organisations now hoping these findings will have a positive and lasting outcome for motorists when visiting the country’s forecourts.
These latest numbers once again place Portugal at the summit when it comes to charging its people for energy. Last week, The Portugal News revealed that Portugal continued to have the highest gas prices in Europe and the second highest electricity prices in 2017 in terms of purchasing power parity.
As is the case with fuel, one of the major reasons for Portugal being so close to the top when it comes to energy costs, is the fact that taxes here are the third highest anywhere in Europe.
There was however some respite for motorists at the beginning of the week when fuel prices dropped - for the first time since March.
After ten weeks of increases, the price of both unleaded petrol and diesel became cheaper on Monday morning, with unleaded fuel dropping by 1.5 cents a litre, while diesel became cheaper by one cent a litre. With these reductions, petrol now costs an average of just over €1.58 a litre, while diesel is priced at €1.37 a litre.