The ‘low-cost’ warn that “many will have to close” given the impossibility of anticipating the bonus, while they continue to work on the system that collects the discount on tickets
Next Friday, April 1, the ‘star measure’ of the Shock Plan approved by the Government this week to deal with the economic impact of the war comes into force: the reduction of 20 euro cents per liter of fuel for all consumers, without exception, and automatically when refueling. However, the enabled system, which the BOE reports this Wednesday, implies changes for the companies that own the service stations, which are rushing the times to be able to apply the discount without setbacks, and without seeing their accounts diminished.
The automatic service stations -integrated into the AESAE platform- have issued a harsh statement in which they require the Executive to withdraw the decree because it will “suffocate” the small and medium-sized service station companies, since -they point out- they will not be able to against the advance of the amount necessary to apply the discount “despite the alleged liquidity advance” of the Treasury. They consider that “many stations will have to close” before recovering the funds from the Tax Agency. And that the computer development of this measure, so that it is reflected in the ticket, “needs more than three days” to apply it, the time that elapses between today and this Friday. This is how the mechanism will work for users and gas stations:
The Executive has approved a generalized discount of 20 euro cents per liter (gasoline, diesel and other fuels for sale). When a driver goes to refuel at a service station, he must have a ticket (or invoice, where appropriate), where the initial amount of the operation, the amount of the discount (by virtue of decree law 6/2022 and the final price to pay, hence a complaint from businessmen in the sector, who claim they will not be able to have that program enabled that specifies all those details to the client before day 1.
15 cents plus an additional five
One of the great ones generated resides in how much discount the State assumes and what is the part of the oil companies. In principle, and in general, the public treasury will bear the expense of 15 euro cents per liter sold. The company in question must apply an additional discount of another five cents. With one important exception: small and medium suppliers, which account for around a third of the market share, will not have to face this discount. It will be the State that assumes this expense, together with the 15 euro cents per liter generalized. To differentiate one from the other, the decree states that companies with an annual turnover of more than 750 million euros will have to contribute their five cents. The decree urges them to “commit” to make this discount “unequivocally”, without legally forcing them to do so, as planned through the disbursement of a non-tax patrimonial benefit.
How do you assume that discount?
The crux of the whole process lies in the problem faced by service stations, in general, and small and independent ones, in particular: how do they advance those up to 20 euro cents per liter when selling fuel, at the He hopes that the State will pay them these amounts in the future. The decree law published this Wednesday clarifies that the Treasury is going to articulate a mechanism with which service stations will be able to request the amount of the subsidy in advance. The other possibility is that they request that amount from the treasury every month. Specifically, companies “must submit monthly, in the first 15 calendar days of May, June and July, through the Electronic Headquarters of the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT) or the corresponding Regional Administration, a request for return of bonuses made in the previous month. The return will be settled through a specific website for this procedure. If they opt for the advance, they will receive an amount that represents 90% of the average monthly volume of what was sold in 2021. And then it will be adjusted with the actual volume that they have registered.
Monitor price abuse
Both the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and the Tax Agency itself will be in charge of monitoring that the gas stations comply with the promised reduction, on the one hand, and the obligatory one, on the other, up to those 20 cents. In any case, it will be a complex task, since there are more than 8,000 points of sale distributed throughout Spain, although the State has computerized mechanisms that monitor this data on a daily basis. The latest official records indicate that since last Monday, when the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this discount, the price of diesel has remained practically stable at around 1,867 euros per liter. In gasoline, its cost has decreased minimally from 1,841 euros on the 28th to 1,830 euros on Wednesday, the last day with available data. Although that average hides the data of service stations that have taken advantage of the announcement to raise their prices these days, although they have not been the majority.
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