Yzeiraj: Fuel excise drops automatically when diesel tops 220 lek and gasoline 200 lek a liter

Deputy Finance Minister Endrit Yzeiraj on Monday presented Parliament's Committee on Laws with an emergency decree adding a provision to the law “On Excise Duties.” The government links the measure to geopolitical developments in the Middle East and the resulting crisis in global hydrocarbon prices.

How the mechanism works

Yzeiraj described the measure as temporary and conditional. It is triggered only when the price cap calculated by the Transparency Board exceeds 200 lek a liter for gasoline or 220 lek a liter for diesel. In that case, the deputy minister said, the excise on each of these products falls by 20 points.

The mechanism works separately for each type of fuel, meaning the cut can apply to diesel without applying to gasoline, or vice versa. Yzeiraj said the full effect on the consumer price is 9.45 lek a liter and that the cut “goes entirely into consumers' pockets.”

Comparison with EU countries

He said similar mechanisms have been used in European Union countries such as Germany, Croatia and Slovenia, both in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and this year. Yzeiraj argued that the Albanian measure is more limited, since it is not universal and kicks in only once prices reach a certain level.

The decree's rapporteur, Socialist lawmaker Ermal Pacaj, said it belongs to a set of immediate measures to soften the blow for end consumers. He said the decree does not aim to align with any EU act but to protect local consumers from rising fuel prices by cutting the excise on diesel and gasoline.