Malta’s petrol and diesel among highest taxed in the world

The figures were published in a preview of the 2010/2011 GIZ “International Fuel Prices” report which examines gasoline (unleaded petrol) and diesel retail prices in over 170 countries.

The report provides a snapshot of fuel taxation that bases itself on mid-November 2010’s crude oil price level of $81 per barrel, and categorises countries according to retail fuel price across four categories: highly subsidised, subsidised, taxed, and highly taxed.

The study found that during November 2010, Malta’s gasoline fuel retailed at 163 US cents per barrel – a full 17 US cents above the study’s minimum ‘very high taxation’ benchmark of 146 US cents per litre.

Out of the 170 countries included in the study, Malta ranks 35^th most expensive for gasoline fuel.

With regards to diesel fuel, Malta’s retail fuel price was comparatively higher still, ranking 19^th most expensive with 166 US cents per barrel. Malta’s diesel price was also found to be full 30 US cents more expensive than the study’s ‘very high taxation’ benchmark of 136 US cents.

The report describes the category that Malta falls into as comprised of countries that are “effectively using taxes to generate revenues and to encourage energy efficiency in the transport sector.”

On both gasoline and diesel fuel prices, the majority of countries occupy the third category, described as countries where the retail price of gasoline and diesel above price level of the United States but below price level of Luxembourg (Diesel) and Romania (Gasoline) – the lowest prices in the EU respectively.

The full report will be released later this year.

The same organisation’s 2009 report, which looked at fuel prices in November 2008, however found that Malta’s retail gasoline and diesel prices were the third most expensive in Europe (156 US cents and 166 US cents per litre respectively).

The 2009 report provided a snapshot based on the crude oil price level of $48 per barrel — “a very low figure compared to the overall trend in the past two years (2007/2008)” the report noted.

Turkey was the chart-topper for both gasoline and diesel retail prices (with 163 US cents and 187 US cents per litre respectively), while the Netherlands came in at a close second (with 145 US cents and 168 US cents per litre respectively).

In the 2009 study, the ‘very high tax’ benchmark was set at 123 US cents per litre for gasoline, and 128 US cents per litre for diesel.

The study also noted how the biggest jump in Malta’s fuel retail prices took place between 2002 and 2004. It noted how diesel fuel prices jumped by 44 US cents per litre, while gasoline prices increased by 31 US cents per litre.

Between 2008 and 2006 however, Malta’s gasoline retail price also registered another solid increase, going up from 138 US cents in 2006 to 166 US cents per litre in 2008 – a jump of 28 US cents.

A breakdown of retail fuel prices from 1991 onwards shows that while Malta’s diesel prices only relatively recently crept into the ‘very high taxation’ category, prices prior to 2002 were only in the moderately taxed category.

Gasoline retail prices however prove to be a very different kettle of fish. Firmly within the ‘very high taxation’ category since 1998 (the first year when Malta’s fuel retail prices were made available to the study), gasoline prices consistently edged ahead of the category benchmark up till 2006.

In 2008, Malta’s retail prices for both diesel and gasoline notably zoomed ahead of the study’s benchmark however, with a generous margin of 33 US cents and 33 US cents per litre respectively.

In January, government however claimed that fuel prices amended just days earlier merely reflected increases in international prices, and were actually lower than average European Union prices.

“All of Malta’s fuel is imported, and because of this, the price at which fuel is sold is the result of increases in fuel prices abroad,” the Finance Ministry had said. “The local price for unleaded petrol, diesel, as well as heating oil, are below average among the 27 member states within the European union.”

The Ministry said that the highest priced unleaded petrol was in Greece and the Netherlands, at €1.58, while the highest priced diesel was in the UK and stood at €1.50 per litre.

The Ministry added that unleaded petrol costs €1.31 per litre in Malta, while diesel stood at €1.21 per litre.

Unleaded petrol price goes up by one third since start of 2010

Unleaded petrol is up by €0.30c - or 27% - over the past 17 months since January 2010, averaging out at 1.59% every month.

While in January 2010 the price of unleaded petrol stood at €1.11, it is now up to €1.41 per litre as per fuel price revisions that were announced at the end of May.

This means that if €20 would have bought 18.01 litres of unleaded petrol in January 2010, today the same €20 would only buy 14.18 litres worth of gas.

The difference - 3.84 litres - is equal to €5.417 worth of fuel in today’s prices. In January 2010, €5.417 would have bought 4.89 litres of gas.

Keeping in mind an average car gas tank of 76 litres (20 US gallons), buying half a tank of petrol would have cost €42.02 in January 2010.

Today however, that same half-tank of petrol will cost €53.37 – a difference of over €10 (€11.35), and equal to 8.5 litres of unleaded petrol in today’s prices.