Why is fuel more expensive in Hungary than in Austria?
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It is already cheaper to buy gasoline abroad than in Hungary. Because of the tax raises and the government measures in connection to the epidemic, the Hungarian fuel prices increased significantly in the least few months. Details below!
According to nepszava.hu and based on data of the cargopedia.hu, even though at the beginning of April, Hungarian fuel prices were better than in the neighbouring countries, the situation changed significantly by now. Petrol prices are in the 4th place out of the eight, while gasoline is the third most expensive in the region. Népszava says that, in regional comparison, this has been the worst result since 2012.
One of the reasons is that the government raised taxes on fuel in July. In Hungary, it is an automatism that
if the oil’s price decreases the tax on the different fuel types increases
and that is what happened in the last few months because of the coronavirus epidemic.
Interestingly, there was a short period in April when Hungarian fuel prices were below the Ukrainian, which is traditionally the lowest in the region. However, even though fuel prices were low in those days, nobody wanted to travel because of the strict regulations the government implemented to stop the spread of the virus. Now that everybody can move, fuel prices are again increasing.
I had a good laugh reading this article this morning.
‘In Hungary, it is an automatism that…’
Automatism is a) a rarely used legal defence pertaining to the mental state of the defendant, and is used as b) to describe a medical condition to describe a brief set of unconscious behaviours, involuntary actions. So, has Hungary committed an involuntary criminal act that it was unconscious of doing at the time by raising the tax on the price of petrol?