THOUSANDS of panicked motorists caused chaos on the roads last night as they went scrambling for petrol to fill up their cars ahead of today’s threatened closure of all petrol stations.
The mad rush followed the announcement by petrol station owners that they were shutting down all their outlets in retaliation to a government order putting a cap on pump prices.
It is the first time the government has invoked the law allowing it to put a ceiling on fuel prices.
The fuel outlets will be closed as of 6am today “in protest because the stations are not viable with the ceiling imposed by the trade minister”, said the owners’ association spokesman Stefanos Stefanou.
The shutdown includes self-service machines.
“The decision will be in force until the trade minister decides to lift the order,” Stefanou said.
It is understood that not all stations will be affected as around 30 out of the 280 island-wide, belong to two fuel companies directly – EKO and Lukoil – and are not franchised out to individual owners.
Trade and Industry Minister Antonis Paschalides accused the owners of spreading panic to force consumers to fill up their tanks with the higher prices.
Earlier, Paschalides announced a price cap on diesel and petrol for the next eight days.
“After consulting with the competition committee … the minister came to the conclusion that indeed, prices were too high and decided to proceed with the issuance of the order,” said Antigoni Loucas, spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry.
The price of 95-octane petrol has been set at 95 cents a litre, the price of 98-octane petrol at 97 cents per litre.
The price of diesel was set at 87.5 cents per litre.
Pambinos Charalambous, chairman of the petrol station owners’ association, wondered why the minister had not imposed a ceiling on wholesale prices.
“Why didn’t he put a price cap on the wholesale price of fuel sold by the large companies which sell to us?”
Charalambous also objected to the imposition of price caps without any consultation with the petrol station owners, and noted that “the minister is trying to get us all to sell petrol at the same prices.”
He said this was against the free market.
Paschalides said such consultation does sometimes occur, but it is not required by law.
The minister stressed that, in this case, he took the decision on the basis of the detailed examination he had undertaken of the factors involved.
“No petrol station will suffer serious economic damage as a result of this measure,” Paschalides said.
But he conceded that “profits for some petrol stations will be reduced for a few days” as will profits for some fuel companies.
The minister said it was possible the eight-day cap would be lifted “tomorrow (today)” and observed that he had the legal right to cap prices for 40 days at a time if required.
The minister noted that in the past, petrol stations and supply companies had made significant profits as a result of petroleum prices rising internationally, which they were quick to exploit by adjusting pump prices upwards, even though the fuel they were selling at the time had been bought at lower prices.
Solon Kasinis, the head of the ministry’s energy service, said petrol prices should have been reduced since January and suggested a study be undertaken to reveal what exactly the condition was regarding the price of petrol products.
He said such a study would make it clear whether it was the large petrol companies which were to blame for prices being higher than they should be.
Paschalides said he was willing to negotiate with the owners of petrol stations, but was not willing to do so under the threat of a shutdown.
He also clarified that he did not have the legal authority to impose a price cap on the prices at which the petroleum companies sold wholesale to the outlets.
“This is one of the areas where we have asked for an amendment of the law, for the protection of the consumer, and we shall forward it in Europe and Parliament,” the minister said.
