Greece’s two refining groups, HELLENiQ ENERGY and Motor Oil, will each hand the state €20 million to bankroll the fuel price cut Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in Parliament on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said, putting the price tag on the intervention at €40 million and, as he pointed out, at zero fiscal cost to the budget.
Speaking on ERT News, Hatzidakis said pump prices for gasoline and diesel had been climbing since the start of July, prompting the government to approach the refineries for help. Under the arrangement, gasoline will fall by 10 cents a liter and diesel by 5 cents through the end of August, with the measure kicking in next week once technical details are finalized with the finance ministry.
The reductions are calculated against pump prices as of Friday. Retail fuel prices move daily with international benchmarks and the euro-dollar rate, and Hatzidakis acknowledged that if global prices rise before the measure takes effect, the visible gap will narrow accordingly. If they fall, consumers stand to gain more. What is guaranteed, he said, is that drivers will pay 10 cents less on gasoline and 5 cents less on diesel than they would have without the intervention.
Hatzidakis attributed the renewed upward pressure to a mix of factors: higher global demand tied to the summer tourism season, Russia’s ban on diesel exports, and the slow repair of refineries damaged during the recent conflict in the Middle East. Prices had eased after the ceasefire in the region, he noted, before turning again. The daily figures are published on the development ministry’s fuelprices.gr portal, which lists international, refinery, wholesale and retail prices by station and area.
The mechanism, a levy on private companies rather than a call on public funds, sits at the center of the political argument playing out around it. In the Parliament exchange earlier the same day, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis questioned the government’s habit of striking what he called “gentlemen’s agreements” with industry and supermarket chains to bring prices down, asking whether the practice was not itself a tacit admission that cartel-like behavior existed in the first place. Mitsotakis countered that with the fiscal space available, the government was doing what it could to support households, and challenged the opposition to name an alternative.
For now, the arithmetic is straightforward. Two companies, €40 million, roughly seven weeks of relief at the pump, and a budget line untouched.
Source: tovima.com
