More than 90 percent of petrol stations have sent price data to the Ministry of Finance to check fuel margins. The ministry plans to announce whether the margins were reasonable or not within the next week, ministry spokesman Tomas Weiss said. Service stations were to send the ministry data on average fuel sales prices from February 15 to March 15 by noon Thursday.
The state moved to survey margins because of a record increase in fuel prices after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Gasoline rose by about ten crowns and diesel by more than 13 crowns in about two weeks after the attack began.
Originally, petrol stations were supposed to report price data by Wednesday noon. However, according to the ministry, the application through which the data was sent was attacked by hackers on Wednesday. Therefore, the authority has postponed the deadline for reporting the data by one day.
The amount of petrol station margins are supposed to be one of the tools the government wants to use to counter the rise in fuel prices. A week ago, the government also decided to abolish the compulsory blending of bio-components into fuel and the road tax for cars, vans and trucks up to 12 tonnes.
Fuel prices have been falling in recent days. According to CCS data as of Wednesday, petrol has become cheaper by CZK 1.51 to an average of CZK 45.13 per liter over the past week, while the price of diesel has fallen by CZK 1.34 CZK 47.69.