Petrol consumption in ČR down 4% in H1 due to record prices

Prague, Sept 14 (CTK) - Consumption of petrol in the Czech Republic dropped by almost 4 percent year-on-year to 839,000 tonnes in the first half of this year due to record-high prices, according to data of the Czech Association of Petroleum Industry and Trade (CAPPO).

Diesel oil consumption stagnated at 1.96 million tonnes in January-June, CAPPO said.

Petrol consumption has been decreasing every year since 2005.

Last year, around 1.8 million tonnes of petrol were consumed in the Czech Republic. In the full year 2012, petrol consumption could drop by up to one-tenth compared with 2011, according to some estimates.

Petrol prices have been growing in the long term and people are limiting the use of their cars, CAPPO secretary general Milos Podrazil said.

Petrol prices now reach record-high levels of around Kc39 a litre. Petrol is even sold above Kc40 a litre at some filling stations, Podrazil said.

People are also forced to handle their family budgets with caution owing to growing prices of food and pharmaceuticals, for example, according to Podrazil.

Diesel oil consumption is stagnating, although diesel prices are at the moment also at record high levels - at around Kc37 to Kc38 a litre.

"But freight transport has not been declining," Podrazil said.

Lorries have to transport goods despite high fuel prices. Moreover, fuel prices are growing in the other European countries, too, so that international hauliers continue to buy fuel to a large extent in the Czech Republic, he added.

Still, operators of petrol stations have been appealing to the government for a long time to cut excise duty on diesel oil. The measure would, according to the operators, lead to a growth in consumption and consequently also to a growth in the state budget's revenue.

But Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has rejected a cut in the tax.

The share of diesel oil bought by Czech road hauliers abroad has risen to 50 percent owing to high prices in the Czech Republic, data from hauliers' association Cesmad Bohemia showed.

Before the excise tax increased in 2010, hauliers bought 80 percent of fuels at Czech filling stations, according to Cesmad.

Expensive diesel oil poses a fundamental problem as it is very difficult to project higher diesel oil costs into prices amid a general pressure on costs and the current excess of transport capacities over demand, hauliers said.

Cesmad believes the Czech Republic is losing up to Kc7bn a year owing to high excise duty, Cesmad spokesman Martin Felix told CTK.

Before the hike in excise duty, that is at end-2009, the price of diesel oil was Kc10 lower compared with the current price of around Kc37 a litre. However, the growth in fuel prices was caused mainly by more expensive oil.