Cyprus is ahead of all other EU countries when it comes to the use of petrol over diesel fuel, according to the “FuelsEurope 2019” report issued by the professional association of refineries.
Cyprus uses more petrol than diesel than any other EU country with a fuel consumption mix of 54% petrol and 46% diesel, while the average mix in the EU is 50-50 for the year 2018.
Use of diesel cars in Lithuania is around 88% (just 12% run on petrol), in France and Spain use of diesel cars is 82% compared to 18% that run on petrol, in Italy the share of diesel cars is 77%, in Belgium 81%, in Luxembourg 83%, in Ireland and Bulgaria 79%, in Denmark 69%.
FuelsEurope said the fact that diesel significantly outperforms petrol is largely due to the fact that diesel was "backed by favourable consumer taxes" as well as the upgrading of diesel engines by the automobile industry, making them more efficient.
According to the report Cyprus petrol stations are the fifth cheapest in Europe.
The report took into consideration the average prices across the union at the end of March when petrol in Cyprus was sold at an average of €1.142, almost 10 cents cheaper than the average going rate. Specifically, the final price was € 1,142, of which the price of the actual fuel was 52 cents, fuel tax 44 cents and VAT 18.2 cents.
In March 2019, the final price of diesel in Cyprus was € 1.233 per litre, of which the net fuel price was 62.5 cents. Fuel tax was 41.1 cents and VAT 19.7 cents. Cyprus ranked 11th when it comes to the cheapest diesel sold at the pump.
The same report shows fuel taxes make up for 8% of the state’s income, with Cyprus eighth on a list of EU countries regarding the rate of fuel taxes to national income.
Cyprus is one of the countries with the lowest tax on fuel, which was an average 54 cents per litre of petrol (the same tax applies in Poland and Luxembourg) and 49 cents per litre of diesel (same as Sweden, Slovakia, Romania).
Cyprus has the third lowest tax on petrol with only Bulgaria (52 cents) and Romania (53 cents) applying a lower tax rate.
According to FuelsEurope 2019, Cyprus consumes just 2.5 million tonnes of liquid fuel a year, the same amount as Malta, while it has 305 petrol stations compared to Malta’s 78.
