Turkey on Thursday ended a sliding-scale fuel tax system meant to shield consumers from global price swings and currency moves, publishing a presidential decree in the Official Gazette that phases in higher gasoline taxes over three months.
The system, known as “eşel mobil,” had absorbed fluctuations in fuel prices by adjusting the special consumption tax, or ÖTV. Its end would normally have restored the pre-system tax on gasoline in one step, raising the tax by 10.39 lira per liter to 14.8277 lira and pushing pump prices up by about 12.47 lira.
Instead, the government spread the increase over three months to ease inflationary pressure and avoid a sudden price shock, following an approach used for diesel in August. The gasoline tax will be 7.9000 lira per liter in October, 11.3600 lira in November and 14.8277 lira in December. Pump prices are expected to rise by about 4.15 lira starting Thursday, 8.32 lira less than the full increase would have meant.
For liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, authorities returned to the pre-system arrangement in one step. The tax on LPG, last set at 9.2190 lira per kilogram under the sliding-scale system, rises to 11.3830 lira. Autogas pump prices are expected to increase by about 1.48 lira.
