Fuel, the big gas pump scam: smuggling and taxes escaped, what you don't know

In the service aired on the morning of Thursday 24 October on Coffee Break, the political in-depth program of La7 led by Flavia Fratello, the envoy Francesco Bardaro wanted to get to the bottom of the matter by showing the numbers and the ways in which this fraud also affects the operators, as well as the tax authorities. "You can go from VAT evasion and excise duty to the illegal importation of products. Each case has negative consequences for the tax authorities and for honest operators. We have estimated that about 10% of the product is involved and we could estimate from 2 to 3 billion lost revenue for the state, "said the president of the Petrolifera Union Claudio Spinaci.

The Government is trying, like the previous executives, to recover this large sum of money, which is complicated by the fact that in 2012 the fuel market was liberalized. For this reason, the alarm sounded Marco Lorefice of the Customs and Monopolies Agency: "The number of operators has multiplied, as well as the number of depository subjects. This involved a significant organizational and operational effort ".

Smuggling and evasion of VAT and excise duties are the main threats to the Treasury, circumvented by intricate financial systems that make a mockery of the laws in force, which are totally ineffective to counter the phenomenon. The borders of the North-East are the most used for fuel smuggling, with the port becoming the most sensitive hub, since it is the entry point into the country.

Computerization of controls it could play a fundamental role in slowing down or stopping the illicit fuel traffic, but it is struggling to assert itself due to the exponential growth of the phenomenon. Also the lowest price of the standard of the fuel in the points of sale helps to penalize honest operators, who have more and more difficulty in running their business.