The National Association of Fuel Distributors (ANAREC) called on the government on Monday to review its position regarding the unfreezing of the carbon tax update, stating that there is nothing “gradual.”
“The government has steadily curbed the fall in fuel prices by updating the carbon tax for the third time, since August 23,” the association said, representing a cumulative impact of 7.5 cents on the price of diesel and 6.9 cents on the price of gasoline.
According to the entity, “the unfreezing of the carbon tax update has not been done gradually, contrary to what is evident from the legal document.”
Anarec said that this increase in the carbon tax “has a strong impact on the final fuel prices paid by the end consumer, generating more tax revenue for the State,” assuring that the three updates “already result, on average, in a cumulative impact of 7.5 cents on the price of diesel and 6.9 cents on the price of gasoline.”
In addition, he stressed, the increase in the carbon tax is reflected “with a greater impact on the price of bottled LPG, that is, bottled gas, which has been rising steadily since August 23.”
For the association, it is important that the end consumer “realizes that this increase in the price of bottled LPG is directly associated with the increase in the carbon tax.”
Anarec gave the example of a gas cylinder most commonly used by Portuguese families (13 kg, butane), which pays 3.16 euros in the ISP, “which already includes the carbon tax”.
“Before the Government began to defrost, the same bottle paid 2.22 euros in ISP (carbon tax included)”, that is, there was “an increase of around one euro, in less than a month, and the Government plans to continue with this increase.”
ANAREC therefore asks the Government to “review its position regarding the gradual unfreezing of the carbon tax update, with special attention to bottled LPG”.
The association also referred to “the different tax treatment that exists between natural gas and bottled gas.”
“There is a constant penalty for bottled gas, particularly in terms of the 23% VAT applied to this type of product, while natural gas, which is used for exactly the same functions in the domestic sphere, already has a 6% VAT up to certain quantities,” he concluded.
The carbon tax will be updated again starting this Monday, with the value per tonne of CO2 rising to 81 euros, cancelling out the drop that the industry had anticipated for the sale price of fuels.
In 2022, following the sharp rise in fuel prices recorded at that time, it was decided to suspend the update of the additional tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the so-called carbon tax, maintaining the value defined in application. 2021.
In May 2023, still under the leadership of the previous government and in light of some price relief that later began to occur, the unfreezing of the update of this rate began – a movement interrupted in August of that year and resumed in 2024.
Source: Observadora
