Official: Higher excise duties no excuse for general price hike
The upcoming rise in fuel excise duties would not mean a general increase in prices across the board. The only immediately noticeable increase caused by the government’s higher excise taxes will be in the price of light alcohol, expected to make a can or bottle of beer or cider some 20 cents more expensive.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ deputy secretary general for tax and customs policy, Dmitri Jegorov, pointed out on ETV’s “Terevisioon” on Tuesday that the wholesale price of transport fuels was still defined by the seller, not the government’s excise rate.
The higher excise rate, to enter into effect tomorrow Wednesday, will make up 5.6 cents of a liter of gasoline, and 5.4 cents of a liter of diesel fuel including value-added tax.
Just like it was the case with alcoholic beverages and tobacco, importers had had time to prepare for the rise, Jegorov said. This would contribute to lessening the price increase. “The largest stocks are of alcohol, and the price increase won’t be noticeable right away,” Jegorov said, adding that vodka was the most commonly stocked drink, often with reserves that would last producers and importers a whole year.
Once vodka appeared in shops on which the higher rate had been paid, prices would increase by about 50 cents per half-liter bottle.
The share of transport fuels in the economy was some 3 percent, Jegorov pointed out, in the food industry even much less, at some 1 percent. “The biggest price increase will affect mainland transport, but the actual selling price of a service can’t increase by more than a few percent because of the higher excise rates,” Jegorov stressed.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
