The shipowners’ hope of being granted, at least through a tax credit, a contribution to cope with the increase in fuel costs due to the war in the Middle East has been dashed against the latest version of the Decreto Carburanti-bis. The trade association Assarmatori laments that it reached final approval “with the same critical issue as the first edition of the text: no intervention for maritime transport, precisely while shipping companies are bearing significant extra costs linked to the increase in fuel and continue to guarantee essential connections with the major and minor islands”.
Assarmatori forcefully denounces “a decision that penalizes a strategic sector for the country” and “dumps onto the companies that ensure connections with the islands a burden that should be addressed with adequate public instruments”. Recalling in this regard how maritime transport “is not an ancillary service” but “an infrastructure that guarantees territorial continuity, the mobility of citizens, the supply of goods and the stability of the tourist economy of entire regions. Excluding it from the Dl Carburanti-bis means ignoring reality and forgetting the needs of island communities”.
For Stefano Messina, president of Assarmatori,“this exclusion is incomprehensible. The companies are not speculating: they are bearing extraordinary costs to continue guaranteeing regular, frequent connections at competitive prices, because the ship remains the cheapest means of transport to reach the islands. But you cannot expect the sector to absorb the impact of the fuel increase alone, while other sectors are supported with public resources”.
Adding insult to injury because, with the Ets “the resources, also generated by shipowners, are collected and used to finance measures on fuels from which maritime transport remains excluded. It is an evident short circuit – continues Messina – The maritime sector guarantees an essential service, supports the regularity of connections and the economy of the islands, pays the Ets and then is excluded when interventions are distributed”.
Assarmatori reiterates that the solution is “a targeted tax credit, at least proportional to a part of the documented extra fuel cost, for companies engaged in essential maritime connections. We are not asking for preferential treatment” he adds. “We ask for consistency and respect for a sector that keeps the islands connected to the rest of the country every day. We therefore hope that the Government and Parliament show adequate sensitivity and do not leave shipping companies alone to face the extra costs” is the conclusion of the shipowners’ association
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