Diesel up 14 cents

The price of a litre of diesel will be 14 cents higher from today, while petrol will cost an additional 8 cents.

It means a litre of 95 will cost €1.912 per litre and diesel €1.81 per litre, the highest ever in the case of the latter.
The reason behind the price hikes is that a barrel of Brent, which is the benchmark for the European market, was selling for US$119.78, an 11 year high. (11 February 2011)
On Friday oil was trading at $US114 but is now at US$112.37 which represents an increase of 1.73%.
Fuel retailers think that the measures recently announced by the government to offset the “huge increase in prices” don’t go far enough and are calling for a tax reduction on the “extremely high tax burden”on petrol and diesel.
“From an analysis of the measures announced (by the government), the Portuguese Association of Fuel Retailers ANAREC concludes that these are insufficient and, once again, of a temporary nature which does not allow for a definite solution to the real problem of high fuel prices in Portugal which are the extremely high taxes on petrol and diesel”, it states in a communiqué issued on 5 March.
According to the association, the increase in the amount of discount offered motorists on Autovouchers from five to €20 in March, and the extension of the reimbursement of the extra gain from VAT on ISP (Tax on Petroleum Products) and freezing carbon tax increases until the end of June “will do hardly anything to relieve or resolve the sector’s problems”.
Meanwhile, the government has not ruled out putting up the price of electricity for households, but say it would be merely marginal and below two digits.
“I cannot rule out price increases” said the Adjunct Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba in a conference organised by ECO on “The War in Europe and the Energy Shock”.