Czech finance ministry to cap petrol, diesel prices from Thursday

From Thursday, new measures against high fuel prices take effect in Czechia: the finance ministry will again set daily maximum prices for petrol and diesel, while the excise tax on diesel will fall from 9.95 to 8.011 crowns per litre. The Czech Petroleum Union warns that in the first days of the regulation, petrol stations will be forced to sell at a loss.

According to union head Ivan Indráček, the government is knowingly pushing petrol stations into losses in the first days of the regulation. “In the first three days of the new price regulation, the situation from this past March will most likely repeat itself, when petrol stations were forced to sell diesel for less than they had paid for it. But in spring that was unplanned, whereas now it's the government's direct intention,” Indráček said. He added that this is also caused by the method used to calculate the price ceilings, which has been slightly changed compared to spring.

Indráček also rejected the idea that the current high fuel prices are caused by sellers' margins — a point, he said, the government itself agrees with.

Fuel demand is already falling

Petrol station operators say they are ready for the regulation. At the same time, some of them have been recording a drop in demand in recent days. For example, the Globus chain recorded at its petrol stations, since 21 September, when the government decided on the regulation, a 3.4% drop in average petrol consumption. The decline in diesel was even more noticeable: the difference between 21 and 29 September came to almost 16%.

“Since Tuesday, we've seen a drop in sales volumes at most of our petrol stations — 73% of them. The overall trend shows that drivers are waiting for the new regulated prices from 1 October,” added Globus spokesman Zdeněk Vesecký.

How much will fuel cost on Thursday

The finance ministry announced Thursday's price ceiling back on Wednesday afternoon. The maximum selling price for diesel on Thursday will be 48.72 crowns per litre, and for petrol — 46.14 crowns per litre. The finance ministry will set price ceilings for each day until the end of October.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz