Association of 40 million motorists started a petition on their website on Wednesday, April 10, 2024require a cap fuel prices. These activists are asking the state to review its tax code that a liter of petrol or diesel does not exceed 1.50 euros, “the only acceptable limit”according to them.
Recently, prices are flying up again and flirt at some stations with 2 euros per liter unleaded 95. According to the association, the price of a liter of SP95 increased by 32 cents per year, and a liter of diesel fuel increased by 21 cents during the same period. This represents an increase in the domestic budget of more than 200 euros per year.
Taxes represent 60% of the fuel price
According to 40 million motorists, the situation is no longer sustainable. These record prices have become, according to the association “a symbol of the high cost of living” AND “It threatens access to mobility for many of our fellow citizens, for whom the car remains the only relevant means of transport for most daily journeys: to work, to take children to school, to seek treatment, to shop…”
40 million motorists calls on the state to limit “urgently”price at the pump up to 1 euro 50, through tax reform: taxes are actually 60% of the fuel price. At the end of 2023, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that the oil company TotalEnergies kept its ceiling at €1.99 for 2024.
An increase in the price of a barrel of oil
We have to go back to September 2023 to find fuel prices this high. Gasoline and fuel reached records at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with prices above 2 euros per liter. At the beginning of the yellow vest movement, a liter of gasoline cost around 1 euro 50, and lower prices were already one of their demands.
A barrel of oil currently trading at $90, it cost less than $80 in early February. The increase due to the unstable political context, the agreement between the producer countries, but also the stocks made in the United States, as the “driving season” approaches, a holiday during which many Americans leave by car.