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Andrew Glass
Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) has spoken out in favor of dictating to gas stations and oil companies how much money they can charge for petrol and diesel in the future. If the corporations “cannot credibly prove” why fuel is more expensive in Bavaria than in other federal states and neighboring countries, “then politicians must intervene here too and even decide on things, including price targets, that we have not been used to politically up to now,” Aiwanger said on Monday after the Bavarian cabinet meeting. The pricing policy is “completely opaque” and one should “no longer allow oneself to be danced around on the nose”.
In fact, fuel prices in Bavaria have recently often been higher than in the rest of the country. “The price differences between the federal states when filling up are getting bigger,” the ADAC stated in mid-August. “The victims are primarily the drivers in Bavaria.” The petroleum industry lacks transparency, the fuel prices are only understandable to a certain degree, criticized the ADAC. The Fuels & Energy trade association, in turn, justified the price differences with a loss of production at the OMV refinery in Vienna-Schwechat, which is why deliveries were diverted. There was talk of an improvement in the situation by the end of September.