It’s not a hoax! April 1 will see prices soar for gasoline, cigarettes and natural gas

Newsroom 31/03/2014 | 15:18

Romanians will be hit with a series of price hikes on Tuesday, April 1, after the scheduled excise tax hike for gasoline and cigarettes. The price for natural gas will also increase by 2 percent for households.

The new fuel excise tax will be introduced on Tuesday, after initially it was supposed to be implemented at the beginning of the year. The new 7 eurocents per liter excise will provoke a price increase of RON 0.41 / liter of fuel, according to estimates by the Ministry of Public Finances. The government is set to bring in RON 2.5 billion for the budget from this tax hike.

The NEW fuel excise for lead gasoline:
From 547 euro / ton to 637.9 euro/ton; from EUR 421.19 / 1,000 liters to EUR 491.19 / 1.000 liters.
Lead-free
From EUR 467 / ton to EUR 557.91 / ton; from EUR 359.59 / 1,000 liters to EURO 429.59 / 1,000 liters.
Diesel fuel
From EUR 391/ton to 473.85 /ton; from EUR 330.39 / 1,000 liters to EUR 400.595 / 1,000 liters.
Kerosene
From EUR 469.89 / ton to EUR 557.39 / ton; from EUR 375.91 / 1,000 liters to EUR 445.91 / 1,00 liters

Rompetrol and Petrom representatives estimated in February that the fuel excise tax hike will lower sales for gasoline and diesel fuel by 1 to 3 percent in the first three months after its introduction.

Transporters will be hit the hardest by this new measure, but the Government wants to appease them by giving back 4 out of the 7 extra euro cents in the fuel excise tax. The sum will be returned on a quarterly basis by the Government, based on the bill of purchase provided by the transporter. The Government is planning to introduce the measure for “fair transporters, that don’t have a history of tax evasion”.

“Of course, we will give an Emergency Ordinance. We’re waiting for results of the latest negotiations with the Unions, the European Commission and next week we will make a decision”, Ponta said on Monday.

Natural gas

The price of natural gas will increase by 2 percent on Tuesday for household consumers. The good news is that the Government is not planning on also increasing the price for electrical energy.

“For gas, a new price for household consumers will be introduced on April 1, as part of the schedule conceived by the previous government and continued by us. Everybody on the free market will maintain the same reference price as the one on January 1 2014”, according to prime minister Victor Ponta.

Cigarettes

Romanians will pay more for cigarettes starting with April 1, with an expected increase of RON 0.3 – 0.5 / per cigarette pack as a result of the higher excise tax.

The new cigarette excise tax

Total excise :  from EUR 81.78 / 1,000 cigarettes to EUR 84.37 / 1,000 cigarettes.

Specific excise : from EUR 56.71 / 1,000  cigarettes EUR 59.77 / 1,000 cigarettes.

Minimum excise between April 1 20014 and March 31 2015: from EUR 79/ 1,000 to EUR 81.5 / 1,000.

Ad Valorem excise: down to 18 percent from 19 percent.

New interconnecting tariffs

We do have some good news though. Amid the wave of expenses, some services will actually be cheaper after April 1.

From April 1, telecom operators will practice lower interconnection fees: the maximum termination rates will be 0.14 eurocents/minute for fixed call termination – down from 0.67 eurocents/minute – and 0.96 eurocents/minute – down from 3.07 eurocents/minute for mobile call termination. The measure will also be consulted at European level.

ANCOM also set new tariff ceilings for the ancillary interconnection services offered by all the providers of communications networks, respectively for the national call transit services, leased lines-terminating segments services and Ethernet backhaul services, supplied by Romtelecom.

The rates were determined by ANCOM based on certain cost calculation models and will become effective on April 1.

The new rates will become mandatory for all the network providers from Romania identified as having significant power on the markets of fixed and mobile call termination. As until now, the termination rates are not differentiated by the technology used (e.g. 2G or 3G, PSTN or IP), by the time of the day when the calls are initiated or by their origin (fixed locations, mobile locations, national or international networks).

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