The tank discount has been available in Germany for a few days. But the effect fizzles out again!
Gasoline should be 35 cents cheaper, diesel 17 cents cheaper – in theory!
“Despite the energy tax cut, the forecast reductions of 35 cents for Super E10 and 17 cents for diesel do not reach consumers,” criticized the ADAC. This means that the drop in prices is well below the potential for tax cuts.
► The price of petrol fell by “only” 20.3 cents in a weekly comparison, the nationwide average price was 1.948 euros per liter. The drop in price was therefore around 15 cents less than the tax cut.
► Same picture with diesel: Here the price fell by 5.2 cents to an average of 1.992 euros compared to the previous week – 12 cents too little.
If prices keep going up, the discount will soon be gone
If the trend continues and fuel prices continue to rise at the same pace (arithmetic growth), the anti-expensive effect of diesel would be gone in less than a week!
With petrol, it would last until early July. So the three months of relief won’t work…
This is the “curve of shame”
Who’s to blame?
For one thing, oil prices have continued to rise since the introduction of the tank discount on the world market. A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost around 122.5 euros on Friday – on June 1 the price was just under 116 euros. Makes an increase of 5.7 percent.
Saskia Esken (60), head of the traffic light party SPD, scolds the oil multinationals on n-tv: “In fact, the mineral oil companies are not implementing the price cuts as we imagined.” And further: “In the end it ends up the tax cut is now in the pockets of the oil industry, that’s not okay. We didn’t want to introduce subsidies for oil companies.”
Away with it, say the first politicians
Alt-Grüne Renate Künast (66) told ARD during the week that the tank discount was not aimed at the lower salary groups or the climate.
She even wants to talk about stopping the discount: Household funds should be spent “differently and more specifically” to relieve consumers.
The head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, thinks the same way: “If you realize after a week that the tank discount was a mistake, why do you want to go on for another three months and throw another three billion euros down the throat of the mineral oil companies throw?” The concept had failed. Such a tax cut only works “if there is really competition,” Fratzscher told RBB.
In the case of diesel and gasoline, however, a few oil companies and refiners would control and dominate the market. If you have a lot of market power, “then these corporations keep this tax reduction for themselves and do not pass it on to the consumers,” Fratzscher continues.
The citizens just don’t believe in a real tank discount effect!
Only 12 percent believe that the petroleum companies and petrol station operators will pass on the tax cuts on petrol and diesel one-to-one to customers in the next three months and make the fuels cheaper accordingly.
The vast majority of 86 percent of Germans – across all population and voter groups – do not believe that.