Montenegro’s Civic Movement URA has proposed temporary cuts to fuel excise duties and VAT while prices remain high and markets are disrupted. Its lawmaker Mileta Radovanić criticised the Government of Montenegro for making unpredictable decisions on fuel costs, which he said prevent households and businesses from planning their spending. The proposal calls for rules set in advance on when and how the state would intervene.
Figures published at the end of October showed petrol in Montenegro was more expensive than in 12 European Union member states, while diesel was more expensive than in nine. A litre of diesel in Malta cost 77 cents less than in Montenegro. Radovanić argued that fuel price increases raise transport, production and service costs, feeding through to the prices of everyday goods.
The lawmaker said the government had yet to introduce measures or establish a clear, long-term policy to protect living standards. Instead, it was making decisions from week to week without predictable rules, he argued. He also criticised the parliamentary majority over its approach to high fuel prices and urged concrete measures rather than further explanations or avoidance of responsibility.
Consumers wait until late on Mondays for fuel prices that take effect at midnight, according to Radovanić. He said that timetable leaves households and businesses unable to plan costs from one week to the next. He described the weekly wait as an unserious approach to a matter that directly affects household budgets and business operations, and called for a clear, responsible and predictable policy.
Over a period of a month and a half, the government changed the percentage reduction in diesel excise duties several times, Radovanić said. He called the repeated adjustments problematic and sought a stable mechanism for responding to market disruptions. In his view, the state has tools to ease high fuel prices but is not using them fully; when prices are excessive, it should forgo some tax and excise revenue so citizens retain more money.
Radovanić said the government and parliamentary majority had previously credited their policies for relatively favourable fuel prices but now treated higher prices as beyond the reach of state policy. “You cannot take credit when prices fall and shift responsibility to international markets when they rise,” he said. He also said living standards could not be protected merely through declarations while the state insisted on filling its coffers. URA’s proposed intervention rules would specify when temporary tax cuts apply and how they would be made during periods of high prices and market disruption.
