More possible in the event of price declines: oil companies do not have to pass on the tank discount

To the surprise of many experts, the tank discount takes effect on the day it is introduced.

More possible in the event of price declines: oil companies do not have to pass on the tank discount

To the surprise of many experts, the tank discount takes effect on the day it is introduced. The current fuel prices have not yet come close to the targeted tax relief. In addition, it is feared that mineral oil companies will benefit from this despite falling prices.

Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt pointed out that the mineral oil companies are not obliged to pass on the tax cuts on fuel. A "significant reduction in fuel prices" could already be observed at the gas stations on the first day of the so-called tank discount, Mundt said on Deutschlandfunk. However, these are “not yet the numbers that the tank discount allows in full”.

"The corporations are not obliged to pass on the tax cuts to the drivers," said Mundt in the interview, referring to the limited possibilities of his authority to intervene. What can be done by the cartel office is "to monitor the pricing policy of the groups very closely and that's what we do".

The mineral oil companies would "really carry out their pricing policy under the magnifying glass of the Federal Cartel Office, at least at the present time," said Mundt. There is great transparency about the prices. This has the advantage "that under certain circumstances we can also ask very uncomfortable questions".

According to the ADAC on Thursday, E10 premium petrol was 27.3 cents per liter cheaper on a nationwide daily average on Wednesday than on Tuesday. For diesel, the minus was 11.6 cents. Super E10 therefore cost an average of 1.878 euros per liter, diesel hit 1.928 euros.

Both price declines are well below the tax relief, which is 35.2 cents per liter for petrol and 16.7 cents for diesel. The measure should apply until the end of August. In this way, the federal government wants to relieve consumers in view of the recent sharp rise in energy prices. However, the tax cut does not only have an effect at the pump, but earlier in the supply chain, at tank farms and refineries. Gas station stocks purchased before Wednesday are therefore still subject to the normal, higher tax.

The cartel office will not only closely monitor the price development at the gas stations, but also at the refinery and wholesale level, said Mundt.

"Wirtschaftswise" Monika Schnitzer fears that mineral oil companies could make significant profits from the fuel tax reduction despite falling prices at gas stations. "After past experience, especially with the 2020 VAT reduction, I think the risk is high," said the economist of the "Augsburger Allgemeine". "Even if more of the tax cut is passed on this time as a percentage than two years ago, the additional profit for companies due to the incomplete transfer in absolute euro amounts can still be very high."

According to their calculations, the mineral oil companies would have withheld 40 percent of the tax reduction from the VAT reduction in summer 2020, said the member of the German government’s Advisory Council. This time, however, the gas stations were under particularly close observation.

The economist Achim Wambach expects noticeable savings for consumers as a result of the tax cut. Studies have shown that 80 percent of the VAT reduction during the Corona crisis was passed on to diesel customers and 40 percent to petrol customers, said the head of the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) of the “Rheinische Post”.