"The area of ​​Environment and Climate Action will propose a decree-law that allows the Government to act on retail fuel margins, so that the fuel market reflects its true costs", announced the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, who is being heard in parliament.

According to the government official, the objective is that, whenever there is a decrease in the prices of the raw material, "it is felt and appropriated by consumers rather than appropriated by the fuel prices margins, also avoiding sudden increases and, potentially, unjustified”.

“The price of carbon dioxide emission allowances reflects the need to shift to a low-carbon paradigm, which we agree with. Therefore, it remains for us, through regulatory grounds, to intervene in the fuel prices margins which, if not abusive, reflect at least a doubtful growth”, said the Minister of Environment.

For the Government, the growth in fuel prices margins is "doubtful", "because the decreases in the price of crude are not reflected in the prices of sale to the public, instead of the speed felt by everyone when its price rises" and, in that sense, it is up to the Government “to act in the short term to correct a market where there are agents who take advantage of price fluctuations to unjustifiably increase their margins”.

According to a study by the National Energy Sector (ENSE) released on 14 July, the margin of suppliers, at the end of June, was 36.6 percent higher in gasoline and 5 percent in diesel than the average margin practiced in 2019.

Citing the study “Analysis of the Evolution of Fuel Prices in Portugal”, the entity that oversees the fuel sector concludes that, "during the critical months of the pandemic, the average sales prices to the public fell at a clearly lower rate than the decline in reference prices", which means that "suppliers' margins thus reached, in 2020, the maximum of the period under review".