Government wants to change “game rules” in favor at the fuel … – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
                         

The government wants to change the “rules of the game” in the fuel sector, through changes in oil basic laws to fill “gaps” in the regulation of the sector that have contributed to the results so far are not satisfactory for the public interest.

                     

                          The guarantee was left by the Secretary of State for Energy, Artur Trindade, in a joint interview with TSF and Mad Money. The minister believes that “there are market failures” that show that the sector “can not simply be left to itself.” Failures that “require a monitoring and continuous improvement of work,” he says.

But the little Secretary of State advances on the changes you want to implement. Merely shows that they are related to “logistics along the value chain ranging from ports to storage sites and pipelines” and aim to “make life easier for operators who want to provide fuels.” The secretary of state wants to prevent these depend on “other operators that have large market shares in Portugal.”

For Arthur Trinity, “this market has more structural sectoral problems with competition and the market structure, with the specific features of this product and the importance of this product. “

There is much that the National Fuel Market Authority, which regulates the market calls for changes to the law of 2006. The official says still be available to change the methodology used to calculate the fuel reference prices. Currently, these prices do not take into account the costs of transport or retail sale.

At this point, Artur Trindade also notes that “there are regional differences that have no justification in terms of logistics, “citing as examples the” Aveiro region [that] has the lowest prices “and” the region of Setubal who is very close to Lisbon and has very high prices. “

In this interview, the Secretary of State also takes this opportunity to reaffirm that Galp and REN will even pay the debt accumulating under the special rate applied to the energy sector. Companies legally challenged the payment of the extraordinary contribution and the Government already threatened with a tax lien to settle the dispute. About a third of the revenue from this tax is used to finance the tariff electricity accumulating debt already about five billion euros.

“In this case, the government applies the strict compliance with the law. Are matters of action of the Tax Authority, under the Ministry of Finance, which has its own mechanisms to act in cases of tax non-compliance. That’s what will make to get the taxpayers concerned comply with their tax obligations. The Government has no reason to believe that this tax will not be paid, “said Arthur Trinity.