Prime Minister Victor Ponta has requested the Minister of Transport and Minister of Finance to talk to the oil companies about fuel prices, convinced that through such discussion a “fair and reasonable” price could be reached.

“I am asking publicly the two ministers – Minister of Transport and Minister of Finance – to have a normal institutional conversation, between government and private companies in the fuel segment, because the excise remained the same as in 2014, all taxes are at the 2014 levels, oil price lowered everywhere, only here does not drop”, said Ponta.

“Sure, the price is not made by the Government, but I am absolutely convinced that a serious discussion with companies will help us to reach a fair and reasonable price”, said Ponta, quoted by Agerpres.

Things are not exactly like this. Figures from Oil Bulletin, published by the European Commission on 29 December 2014, shows that, in Romania, gasoline is 20% cheaper now than six months ago, and diesel prices fell by more than 16%, surpassing the European average of 13.2% for gasoline, respectively 11.9% for diesel.

In addition, by maintaining excise duty in lei at the 2014 level, the illegal calculation of excise in 2014 at the Euro value published by the European Central Bank on 1 October 2012, and not 2013 as written in the law, choosing the highest rates of inflation, introducing an extra-duty of seven cents and VAT at 24%, government was the main architect of the fuel prices increase in Romania.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil fell on Wednesday under the symbolic threshold of USD 50 for the first time since May 2009, while analysts warn that new reductions are possible due to the excess of supply and modest demand.