There has been a global fuel shortage since the attacks on Iran. The federal government's previous measures have only had a limited effect - the fuel discount that came into force at the beginning of this month is once again only partially received by consumers.

Back in April of this year, the federal government decided on a temporary fuel discount for the period from the beginning of May to the end of June. When evaluating the regulation at the time, it was clearCartel office chief Andreas Mundtthat the tax relief was largely, but not completely, passed on to consumers.

An investigation of theIfo Institute(Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich) shows a similar trend with the current fuel discount. When examining the first refueling discount, the institute found that the planned relief for diesel had not been fully reflected in fuel prices.

Only 80 percent of the fuel discount reached consumers - corporations make billions in profit

Discounts on refueling or extra profits for corporations?

The federal government decided that all fuels – Super E10, Super E5 and diesel – would receive a tax cut of 17 cents per liter. On Thursday, the Ifo Institute published a “fuel discount tracker” that uses fuel data to analyze the extent to which the tax relief affects consumption prices. Thecurrent figurescan be viewed every Wednesday from 1 p.m.

Last week, the institute again found that the tax cut of 17 cents per liter had not been fully passed on. While premium gasoline was almost completely passed on - for Super E10 it was 15.8 cents per liter and for Super E5 the full 17 cents per liter - the value for diesel is just 14.2 cents per liter, well below the value decided by the federal government.

Based on the figures from the Federal Statistical Office for taxeddiesel and gasoline salesfrom 2025, the extra profits of corporations can be easily calculated. For the three months of the current fuel discount, that would be around 265 million euros for diesel and a further 20 million for Super E10.

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The question of what happens to the remaining relief is easy to answer. The responsibility for adjusting fuel prices lies with the respective oil companies. They now seem to be pocketing part of the fuel rebate financed by tax money.

Despite the crisis – a lucrative year for oil companies

The German gas station market is closing70 percentcovered by five corporations, which can therefore make almost complete decisions about fuel prices. These monopolies can achieve high profits even in times of oil crises and fuel shortages.

After onecalculationAccording to Greenpeace, oil companies in Germany made extra profits of 1.18 billion euros between March 2nd and April 12th alone - shortly after the start of the Iran War - which corresponds to 27 million euros more every day than before the war.

Fuel discount: The next gift for the oil companies

In addition to incompletely passing on the fuel discounts, the companies are also keeping the option open of allowing fuel prices to rise sharply again after the tax relief ends. On the one hand, new profits are generated, and on the other hand, pressure is exerted on politicians in order to once again create the possibility of throwing tax money into the maw of the oil companies.

What remains clear is that despite the relief in thenational averagewell above the two euro mark. The current fuel discount ends on January 1, 2027. It remains unclear for the time being whether – as with the previous fuel discount – fuel prices can be expected to rise again by up to 20 cents. However, it is difficult to imagine that the companies in the German gas station market would want to miss out on an extra-profitable start to the new year.

The postOil companies are keeping hundreds of millions of euros from the new refueling discountappeared firstperspective.