The Cabinet of Ministers allowed fuel prices to rise above inflation
Participants in the meeting of the headquarters on the situation on the domestic market of petroleum products in the government allowed retail fuel prices to rise above inflation. A source familiar with the discussion told Izvestia about this.
According to him, the meeting raised the issue of raising excise taxes as a factor in a possible increase in retail prices above inflation. He noted that the participants of the meeting allowed an increase in retail prices in the country at the level of the increase in excise taxes.
In addition, the interlocutor noted that at the event it was decided to extend the export ban for non-manufacturers until October of this year.
As Izvestia wrote, due to the fall in oil prices, the profitability of selling petroleum products in Russia for vertically integrated companies is currently negative. According to industry sources, oil companies "pay more excise taxes than they receive a refund on the damper."
Meanwhile, experts are in no hurry to estimate how much retail fuel prices may rise. Because a lot will depend on the level of inflation itself.
Igor Yushkov, an expert and lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, recalls that last year the increase in the cost of diesel fuel met the inflation rate, but gasoline did not.
"The main fuel consumption season is just beginning. Let's see what happens next. I think if inflation really falls to the levels planned in the budget, it will be difficult to meet this level. And it is possible that we may exceed the inflation rate not only for gasoline, as it was in 2024, but also for diesel. Moreover, if the government goes on to further reduce budget expenditures and returns to the idea of reducing payments under the damper, as it was in 2023," the source told Izvestia.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Oil numbers: government allowed fuel prices to rise above inflation
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
