Petroleum association says government “raising false hopes”

The Government has reduced fuel duty for consumers and has asked motorists to check their receipts at petrol stations carefully to ensure that the discount has been passed on in the price they pay when filling up.

But the Portuguese Association of Petroleum Companies (Apetro) regrets that such mistrust is being expressed by the government.
It says this because the sector is “under constant scrutiny”. The general-secretary of the association António Comprido, also says that it creates “false expectations” over the amounts announced by the Government, which did not take into account the increase in the price of oil on the international markets.
“We regret that this mistrust is being expressed, because the sector is under constant scrutiny and is supervised by various entities”, said António Comprido to the online news source ECO.
He added that the Competition Authority has done studies and nothing (anomalous) was detected, so there was no need for mistrust.
The average price of diesel and petrol this week went down by between 9 to 10 cents per litre, while the Government had announced discounts of 14 and 15 cents per litre.
On the discrepancy between the two sets of figures — one from the Government, and the other from the General-Directorate of Energy and Geology (DGEG), António Comprido said, “False expectations were created because they didn’t take into account the increase in prices on the international markets”.