ROME – The Italian government is coming under pressure to ease skyrocketing petrol and diesel prices by reducing or suspending VAT on fuel, some of which reportedly has been applied to alleviate the impact of past shocks to the international economy going back as far as the 1936 invasion of Ethiopia by Italy, political sources said. Magistrates in Rome have also opened an investigation into possible fraud by pump operators taking advantage of the Ukraine war to increase prices.

 Over the weekend, several political forces asked the Draghi government to intervene on excise duties, which together with VAT amount to more than 55 percent of the final price. The costs have gradually increased to cover a very long series of emergencies, including the conflict in Ethiopia in 1936, the 2011 Abruzzo earthquake, the Suez crisis in 1956, and UN missions in Lebanon (1982) and Bosnia (1995), according to Fatto Quotidiano and other newspapers.

 The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation file against unknown persons, without suspects and without a crime hypotheses, to "verify the reasons" for the increased prices and identify any perpetrators.

 The Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani called the price increases "unjustified" and "scams.”

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