Vucic: Oil at $108, Fuel Prices Stay the Same
Vucic says oil has hit $108 a barrel and fuel should have risen by at least 4 dinars a liter, but prices are staying put as the state widens its excise tax discount from 20 to 25 percent.
Oil prices crossed $108 a barrel today, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the presentation of new measures aimed at the living standard of citizens in the Serbia Palace. By his own math, that level should have pushed diesel and gasoline prices up by at least 4 dinars a liter as of today. There will be no such increase.
“Oil has reached $108. So for us it’s a problem when it’s above $90, and today it’s $108. And today we should be raising the price of both diesel and gasoline by at least 4 dinars, but there will be no increase,” Vucic said, addressing the public from the Serbia Palace.
Instead of a price hike, the state is widening its excise tax waiver from the current cap of 20 percent to 25 percent. According to RTS, fuel prices are staying at last week’s levels: 234 dinars per liter for diesel and 205 dinars for gasoline. Deputy Prime Minister and caretaker Finance Minister Sinisa Mali also attended the presentation, Tanjug reported.
The move extends a measure that Srpske Novine has already covered: when the excise discount stood at 20 percent, diesel hit a record 234 dinars per liter, the highest price ever recorded in Serbia, even with excise duty cut roughly in half from its usual level. That price is now holding steady, but the state is giving up an additional five percentage points of its excise revenue to keep it there.
Vucic described the move as cutting both ways, good for citizens and bad for the budget.
“That’s good news for people, and bad news for us, because the state will have to give up not 20 percent but 25 percent of its excise revenue,” the president said.
He did not say how long the expanded excise waiver would remain in place, nor did he give an estimate of how much revenue the budget stands to lose.
Two different oil price figures circulated the same day, and each has its own source. The Brent crude benchmark traded at $106.04 a barrel during the morning session, according to figures Srpske Novine reported in its market coverage. Vucic cited $108 in his midday address. Both numbers refer to the same commodity on the same day, just measured at different moments: one from the morning trading session, the other from the president’s afternoon remarks.
In the same address, Vucic also touched on economic growth.
“We are in Europe, since we now have the final data, third I believe, with Denmark and Malta ahead of us in growth rate, and next year we will certainly be first, but except for Denmark, it’s all somewhere around a 0.1 to 0.2 percent difference,” Vucic said.
Based on the final figures he referenced, Serbia ranks third in Europe by growth rate, behind Denmark and Malta, trailing by a margin of 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points. He forecast Serbia would take first place on the continent next year.
