The lifting of the VAT reduction announced by the Spanish executive from this julywhich will be gradual over the coming months, has balanced the cost of fuel at Andorran gas stations with the closest located to the south of principalitythat of theExplosion of Seu d’Urgell. But this situation does not return optimism to the Andorran oil sector. the president of theAssociation of Fuel Importers, David Porquereswarns in statements to diary that an equally complicated summer is expected and that the Government may have stopped collecting between 200,000 and 300,000 euros in taxes linked to fuel during the month of June.
“When operators place new orders, the increase in VAT will be offset”
Yesterday, the first day with the reduction of the Spanish discountthe last gas stations in the Principality before the Runer border they already showed a lower amount in the diesel A –totally anecdotal– regarding the service station of theEsclat Oil de la Seu, although only in the case of non-discounted drivers. The amount of gas stations BP Arap de Sant Julià de Lòria indicated a diesel locomotive cost of1,466 euros per liternearly one cent less than at the gas station in the capital of theAlt Urgell, with 1,479. On the other hand, with regard to unleaded gasoline, the amount in Spanish territory was still slightly lower. La rise in the price of fuel in the neighboring country it has been about 15 cents
“It’s not just the fuel, it affects the pockets of all citizens”
Since the price of fuel hit the ceiling at Principality in Aprilreaching almost the 1.80 euros per liter following the conflict between the United States and Iranthe cost has been progressively reduced and today it still maintains this trend, becoming cheaper by around thirty cents in less than three months. In any case, the cost continues to be much higher than at the beginning of the year, when it was below 1.2 euros per litre. On this context of fall, pigs points out that it is linked to a general decline in the price of the barrel and that, therefore, it does not affect the differential with Spain.
Al principality nor does it help that the province of Lleida, with which it borders, is one of those that have some fuel prices cheapest in all of Spain. The average cost of unleaded gasoline of 95 is the lowest in the neighboring countrywhile the diesel is the third cheapest.
Porqueres also remembers that the special sale of 15 cents in the purchase for importers during the month of July, which will be reduced to 10 cents in August already five in September. In this sense, he maintains that “when the operators make new orders, the VAT increase”, and the differentials will return to figures similar to the current ones.
In addition, he warns that low-cost service stations will continue to have a higher margin than those Andorran gas stationsa situation he qualifies as “not ideal”. It should also be noted that the decree of the Spanish government incorporates one automatic reactivation clause which would allow aid to be fully recovered if international oil and gas prices rise significantly again.
Criticism of the Government
The president of the Association of Fuel Importers expressed the group’s discomfort with the executive’s inaction. “We already presented the data to the Government and we explained how the situation would evolve,” said David Porqueres. As he regretted, after a first meeting held months ago with the executive, no specific measures have been adopted for the sector to face this anomalous situation.
The president of the entity recognized that the Government yes, it has acted in more general areas such as, for example the increase in the minimum wagea measure that, he said, “we saw that it was meant to fight inflation“. Nevertheless, he defended that other actions could also have been promoted to respond to a problem that, in his opinion, “it is no longer just fuel, but affects the pockets of all citizens“, answered the representative of the sector.
The CPI BREAKS THE UPWARD TREND AND FALLS SEVEN TENTHS
The comparison with neighboring countries shows that the inflation ofAndorra surpasses that of Spain and Francefollowing the trend of recent months. The advanced Spanish index is from 3.2%as in May, while French is in the1.8% and falls six tenths compared to the previous month.
