The Spanish government has announced it will be aiming to reduce petrol prices by 20 cents per litre in an effort to combat rising energy prices affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a €16 billion (£13.4 bnillion/$17.5 billion) plan in the form of loans and aid from the state for both households and businesses to offset the rising energy prices as a result of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Part of the package will be a 20 cent per litre reduction in the price of petrol for consumers which will see the government pay 15 cents and petrol companies pay 5 cents and is expected to last until the end of June, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports.
A billion euros will also be injected directly into the transportation sector on top of the reduction in petrol prices, while the government is also working on reducing electricity prices alongside Portugal and will present a plan to the European Commission this week.
Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni stated Monday that the European Union member states would be looking to relax some energy rules to allow countries to do more to counter inflationary forces as well.
“My services will come [in coming weeks] with further guidances on what kind of derogations to rules that we have on energy taxation could be temporarily allowed,” Gentiloni said.
European Union member states have already spent as much as 0.5 per cent of their GDP on various measures to counter energy inflation, including tax rebates on fuel.
In Italy, the government enacted a decree to lower the price of petrol by 25 cents per litre until the end of April and implemented a new tax on energy companies.
Italy is also a country that is heavily reliant on ga from Russia, importing nearly half of its gas from the country and using gas to fulfil around half of its total energy needs, leading some to speculate that the country may be forced to ration gas due to the conflict in Ukraine.