“A bottomless cheek”
Fuel prices continue to rise before Pentecost weekend
06/03/2022, 2:25 p.m
The effect of the tax break on petrol prices is eagerly awaited, but motorists look at the price tags with disappointment. The oil companies are apparently reluctant to pass on the relief. Now fuel prices are rising again – just before the start of the Pentecost holidays.
The effect of tax relief on fuel prices is fading away. On Friday, the prices at the pumps were higher again, as the ADAC announced. Already on Wednesday, fuel prices had not fallen by the full amount of the tax relief and then rose by a few cents on Thursday. “It’s getting more and more expensive at the moment,” said ADAC expert Christian Laberer. “This is going in the wrong direction without the oil price or the dollar exchange rate giving any reason for it.”
Specifically, Super E10 cost on Friday at 11.05 a.m. according to ADAC on average 1.917 euros per liter nationwide. That was 2.7 cents more than 24 hours earlier. Diesel increased in price by 2.4 cents to 1.968 euros per liter. The figures are based on data from more than 14,000 petrol stations. Since Wednesday, the tax burden on E10 has been reduced by 35.2 cents per liter. For diesel it is 16.7 cents. If you subtract these values from the nationwide daily average prices on Tuesday, the theoretical prices are around 1.80 euros for E10 and 1.88 euros for diesel.
“One could get the impression that the mineral oil industry is using the Pentecost wave for its own purposes in order to keep prices at a high level,” said Laberer. The regional spokesman for ADAC North Rhine, Thomas Müther, expressed himself more drastically: “We have the impression that the mineral oil companies are exploiting the situation when many people go on vacation by car again over Pentecost and demand is high. The tank discount is not complete to pass it on to the consumer and now to even screw up the prices, which are still completely overpriced anyway, is in our view a bottomless cheek.” Customers felt cheated.