The Political Syndicate initiative called on citizens today not to refuel and to boycott gas stations. The reason for the boycott is the high fuel prices in Serbia, which are among the highest in the region, but also in Europe.
If we went to a gas station this morning to refuel, we would need about 204-205 dinars for diesel and about 20 dinars less for gasoline. This is one of the highest prices in the region and in Europe itself. The coordinator of the Political Syndicate, Aleksandar Marić, explained why this is so, N1 reports.
“They are not among the highest, but they are the highest prices in the region and in Europe. The price is practically most affected by excise duties. So not the production price of oil and petroleum products, but the excise duties themselves, which are practically tax burdens of the state and which are the highest in Serbia compared to the region. Thus, the retail price of oil, both diesel and gasoline, is the highest. We believe that this is absolutely not the case and that excise duties should not be so high. Because we see in the examples of the former Yugoslav republics, i.e. countries that are in our neighborhood, such as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, that they have lower excise duties and lower fuel prices. At the same time, their state functions, so that some attitude that reducing the excise duty will significantly affect the budget, will not significantly affect the budget.”
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Is now the right time to reduce excise duties?
“We think that any moment is a good moment, but that now is the right moment, because I think we have reached some upper limit – over 200 dinars is diesel, so even up to 210 dinars are these slightly better diesels. So we believe that in this overall situation when we had a boycott of large retail markets and retail chains, and with the student protest and student blockades… Simply, we think it is the right time for many things in this society to come to light now and to start discussing them and to start solving them. And we think that the price of fuel is one of the big items, because fuel is something that we use more or less every day in transport, in cars.”
Marić thanked the students for, as he says, restoring some faith and hope to us.
“Above all, they have restored love and some beautiful feelings to us, which we may have even forgotten that we have towards each other. Unfortunately, we are in a country where protests and blockades, it seems to me, are the only way to raise something and to change some things. Because students have to go out, they have to make protests, they have to make blockades in order for some things to change. We have to make a boycott of gas stations, so that someone realizes that the citizens of this country are largely opposed to unreasonably high fuel prices, so that after that the excise duties are reduced or the margins in retail chains are reduced.”
Marić says that the response is great, but that they do not expect that no one will show up at the pump.
“The response is great. I think that somewhere the citizens themselves are aware that fuel prices are unjustifiably high. So, no, how should I say, global trends in oil and petroleum product prices on the world market, the war in Ukraine… So, nothing can affect the final price of fuel in Serbia to such an extent as excise duties, and citizens are aware of this and have largely given us support for this action on social networks and in the media in general. We hope that the action will be successful, and if the Government of the Republic of Serbia somehow does not come to its senses and does not reduce excise duty prices, then we will continue with this boycott and protest in the future,” he concluded.
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Source: N1, Foto: Blic