MOL Executives Summoned over Monumental Fuel Price Hikes

“We see that there is a slip in our earlier agreement, so I have summoned MOL and the Hungarian Petroleum Association for talks in the second half of the week,” Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy told Index in response to a question about the fact that fuel prices will rise again from Wednesday.

Earlier, the government reached an agreement with the association, according to which prices should be in the mid-range of the region. Márton Nagy said in connection with the agreement last month: “If this agreement is not respected, we will have to intervene in the fuel prices.”

Nagy said at a press conference on Monday:

I called MOL and the Hungarian Petroleum Association for a meeting in the second half of the week to discuss how they envisage our previous agreement. The next step will depend on the outcome of this discussion. We will inform the media about this.”

Asked by Index why there should be pressure on fuel prices and why the government does not let the market set them, Nagy underlined that fuel prices do not only track Ural crude oil prices. “There is a profit element and many other elements. When we negotiate, we take these factors – including profit margins. We look at whether they are justified and how they are evolving in other neighboring countries.”

According to him, it is worth constantly comparing and examining domestic fuel prices and their profit content with regional prices. The ministry believes that

contrary to what was agreed, prices have slipped from the mid-range in the region.

The fuel price monitoring portal holtankoljak.hu predicts that fuel prices will rise again from Wednesday. The wholesale price of petrol will rise by HUF 3 gross ( 1 EUR = 390.63 HUF), while the price of diesel will increase by HUF 6 gross. The average price of 95 petrol will be HUF 644 per liter and that of diesel HUF 658 per liter, following the price change from Wednesday.

Fuel prices have sometimes changed even twice a week recently, typically rising.

From January until now, the price of petrol has increased by HUF 102 per liter and the price of diesel by HUF 79,

although HUF 41 of this is due to the compulsory increase in excise duty in January. Excluding this, there is an increase of HUF 61 and HUF 38 for petrol and diesel respectively. The increase of around HUF 80-100 per liter means that an average 50-liter tank of petrol costs HUF 4,000-5,000 more now than it did last December.

During the press conference, ATV also asked Minister Nagy about the Spar scandal. He responded that the Minister of Justice would take action, and legal steps would be taken in the matter. He also recalled that the special retail tax had been accepted by the EU, but that for the time being, the European Commission is only investigating whether to launch an inquiry into SPAR’s complaint about the tax. “This is not without precedent, but it ended up in the past with the Hungarian government being vindicated by the EU,” the Minister noted.

Via Index, Holtankoljak.hu, ATV; Featured image: Facebook/MOL