Automatic and low-cost gas stations require the Government to withdraw the bonus

The associations responsible for service stations are overwhelmed. The lack of information on the Government’s plan to curb the rise in fuel prices is being a real headache for the sector and the gas stations cannot bear the cost of a measure that begins to be applied on April 1. Faced with this situation, the association of automatic and low-cost gas stations requires the Government to rectify and reverse the new discounts for the sector published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) today.

The measure presented by the third vice president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, aims to apply a discount of 20 cents for each liter of fuel, a solution approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers and ratified today in the BOE. This reduction comes into force in order to stop the rise in prices and will be in force until June 30, although the Government did not clarify until today How and when will the aid be paid?.

From the associations of service stations, they criticize that the Government it has taken so long to pin down essential information for small gas station owners, who have greater difficulties in advancing funds to consumers after the reduction promised by Sánchez.

On Monday, the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers (Ceees) already warned the Government that small and medium-sized service stations lack the financial capacity to advance discounts announced by the Prime Minister.

The General Assembly of the confederation already met on Monday in the absence of knowing the ins and outs of the measure, which they hope will affects more than 4,000 service stations throughout Spain. From Ceees they communicate that if what Sánchez wants is for SMEs and the self-employed to finance the initiative, the only thing he will achieve is to put them in danger of survival. “Not because the service stations do not want to contribute to its success, but because they cannot directly do so,” according to the employer’s association.

The general director of the Ceees, Nacho Rabadán, explained today in statements to Europa Press that its associates can request an advance on account from the Tax Agency through a form, but that this is not yet available on the Treasury website .

From the Confederation they point out that, de facto, they will have to advance the bonus out of their pocket, which they present as “unfeasible” for a sector that is “very atomized.” “Of the 11,500 service stations that exist, the 70% are owned by SMEs or micro-SMEs“, detailed Rabadán, “and within that 70% we have up to 3,800 self-employed“.

Ceees estimates that, on average, the companies that own service stations will have to advance about 33,000 euros per month, which makes the activity unsustainable in terms of liquidity. “We think it’s a well-intentioned move, we want fuel to be as cheap as possible because ours is a volume business”, stated the director, “the more we sell the better for us. These high prices cause demand to contract.”

For its part, the Spanish Association of Retail Sellers of Fuels and Fuels (Aevecar) and the National Association of Automatic Service Stations (Aesae) have met today to address the situation urgently. From Aevecar, they overtake the Economist what They will ask the government for urgent answers.

Prior to their meeting, Aevecar sources have informed the Economist that “The royal decree has been published, all the announcements have been made in the press… and those of us who have to apply the discount do not know how we are going to be reimbursed. The problem is that the rule comes into force on April 1 and the Tax Agency is supposed to be preparing a mechanism by which we can request an advance for those cents that we are not going to pay. But it is not, nor do we know when it will be. And of course he hasn’t no down payment to guarantee liquidity of the service stations.

“Financing the 20 cents could represent up to 5 times the margin that we can have”

In the same way, the association foresees that the advance of the bonus supposes an expense close to 40,000 monthly for the service stations. “No small service station, which on average sells 200,000 liters of fuel per month, has the ability to advance a penny on the price of fuel. If they advance 20 cents per liter to each consumer, it would be 40,000 euros per month that the self-employed person has to put out of his pocket”, they say from Aevecar and criticize Sánchez’s lack of foresight in the face of a problem that other countries have attacked with time. “In France the same path is going to be taken as in Spain to intervene the price of fuels. However, the French Government has been working on this measure for weeks and we have found out about the norm through the press. We are talking about the fact that at the end of the week this must be in each and every one of the service stations in Spain and at this time we have thousands of doubts“, they criticize from the association.

late afternoon, the Economist has had access to the statement that will be issued tomorrow, Thursday, in which they warn the Government of “possible closure of some gas stations”. In the note, Aevecar does not trust that the Executive is going to pay within 30 days taking into account that, “ 1 day after the entry into force of this measure, have not yet provided nor the official form to be able to request the refund or the advance of those amounts that service stations have to pay”.

From the association, they remember that the sector is very diverse in terms of the economic magnitude of the companies that comprise it, leaving SMEs and the self-employed unprotected“which are suffering from a very delicate economic situation since the pandemic, where they were considered essential services and were open despite mobility restrictionswhich entailed substantial losses from which they have not yet recovered,” the statement read.

In the same way, they regret that these measures have been taken without the correct planning of the Government and having attended to the sector “to make them participants in the existing reality”conclude from Aevecar.

The National Association of Automatic Service Stations (Aesae) has warned after the meeting held in a statement from the temporary closure of small gas stations due to the impossibility of facing the impact on their liquidity which will mean applying the discount of 20 cents on the purchase of fuel and has asked the Government to withdraw it.

According to his estimates, “the deadlines that the Government has given to recover the discount are not real, and thus many service stations will have to close before recovering the funds from the Ministry of Finance.”

Manuel Jiménez Perona, president of the association, has declared to the Economist what “financing the 20 cents could represent up to 5 times the margin that we can have” and added that “the Executive diverts the problem to the gas stations, who cannot do anything, and only promotes the growth of large companies.”

From Aesae they have also urged that the solution to the price of fuel be via adjustments in taxes and “not forcing a discount in the sale price that violates the freedom of the entrepreneur that the Constitution protects in Article 28″.