Meloni’s ‘extensionitis’. Another carbon-copy cut to excise duties but no agreement on what comes next. FI against Giorgetti

They are (once again) dragging their feet, leaving just about everyone dissatisfied. At the Council of Ministers, the government has approved the fifteenth extension of the reduction in excise duty on diesel – a carbon copy of the previous one (17 cents per litre) – for another week. This will cost around 100 million, with the tax credit for hauliers also being extended. And what about the promised structural measures? Meloni says: “The extension isn’t enough. They’re on their way next week.” She is calling for legislation to speed up oil and gas production in Italy through the prompt appointment of commissioners. But strong tensions persist between the League and Forza Italia over selective interventions. As Maurizio Casasco, Forza Italia’s economy spokesperson, puts it: “We believe that taxing windfall profits is wrong. It risks only punishing citizens and businesses.”

It had been said that the thirteenth, and then the fourteenth, would be the government’s final extensions on fuel excise duties. After all, calls are pouring in from all quarters to make the measures against high fuel prices – which have been dragging on for months – permanent. Instead, due to divisions over what action to take, the nature of the measures to be implemented, the potential group of beneficiaries, the duration, and also the scale of the investment, it was decided to kick the can down the road and see how things unfold over the coming days. This led to the approval of the fifteenth extension – something of a record. At least until 17 September. This brings the total close to 3 billion euros invested so far on emergency measures alone. The Council of Ministers meeting convened yesterday afternoon at Palazzo Chigi lasted just over twenty minutes. At the end of the meeting, the usual stopgap solution was approved, given that the discounts introduced last week were due to expire at midnight. “We want to press ahead with increasing domestic oil and gas production, because it makes little sense to buy this energy from abroad when we can produce it here in Italy too,” Meloni went on to say, announcing faster appointments of acting commissioners: “Italy cannot afford to wait decades before granting a concession.” In reality, there have been sharply divergent views within the ruling coalition regarding the adoption of selective measures. Among the main advocates of a social card designed to benefit the less well-off has always been Adolfo Urso, Minister for Enterprise and ‘Made in Italy’, who has consistently opposed cuts to excise duties. However, the Lega has opposed this for as long as anyone can remember; it would prefer – as reiterated in recent days – to focus entirely on a tax on windfall profits from both oil companies and banks. This solution has also met with some openness in recent days from the Minister for the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti. He has, however, sought to frame it in terms of ‘greater competition within the banking system’.

In any case, Forza Italia is not at all keen on the endless refrain about the windfall tax and continues to oppose it resolutely. “Our position is clear,” Maurizio Casasco, FI’s economics spokesperson, tells Il Foglio. “It’s not that we want to defend the banks; it’s that the very concept of windfall profit is wrong in itself. It’s like saying that, beyond a certain threshold, profits that are too high are not acceptable. But it’s not clear why this mechanism should apply to banks and not to other sectors as well.” That said, it is this imposition – imposed, as it were, by decree – that, according to Forza Italia, could do more harm than good. “Because credit institutions might pass the cost on to account holders. In doing so, we would harm businesses and citizens, whom we are absolutely committed to defending. That is why I say that, at most, there can be a dialogue, an agreement that takes account of the positions of all parties”, the Forza Italia representative adds. It remains to be seen. But this issue is set to spark a standoff within the centre-right. There is also, as a further factor, Confindustria’s growing apprehension regarding stopgap measures that are described as ‘lacking vision’. This has been reiterated in recent days by Aurelio Regina, head of energy at Viale dell’Astronomia, who is currently on a mission to South America. “We need to speed things up because gas prices are above 70 euros per megawatt-hour and electricity prices above 220 euros per megawatt-hour,” is the warning issued by Regina. He has also raised the stakes by proposing a mini-PNRR for energy, drawing on the nearly 14 billion euros made available by the EU for decarbonisation. Not only that, but President Emanuele Orsini’s camp is expecting a decree to be approved swiftly regarding the single Special Economic Zone (SEZ) extended to the north – a promise made by Meloni even during the celebrations in Bari marking the government’s record-breaking milestone. Within Confindustria, in fact, there is concern about the red tape of parliamentary politics (the legislation will then have to be passed by the Chamber). As well as the ever-present possibility that someone might decide to call an early election. With the risk that the project will remain a dead letter.