Minister of Finance Lasha Khutsishvili declares that the budget revenue from fuel excise and VAT exceeds GEL 1.3 billion as of 2022. According to the Finance Minister the state cannot cut taxes, as this fund amounts to 8-9% of budget revenues and without it the state will not be able to serve its social obligations.
Khutsishvili considers it impossible to reduce fuel excise and VAT at the moment.
"We are talking about more than GEL 1,300,000,000, which the budget receives from excise and VAT tax. This amount is 8-9% of our country's tax revenue, and now, when the tax plan is already written, a 9% reduction in tax revenue is impossible, as we have to serve the social obligations,” Lasha Khutsishvili said.
In Georgia, per ton of fuel is charged with an excise tax of GEL 500, which means 38 tetri per liter.
In addition, per liter of fuel is charged with 18% VAT, which means VAT of 66 tetri in the case of regular type of petrol. Only the sum of these two taxes is GEL 1.04 and without it, the price for regular type of fuel will be GEL 2.67 instead of the current GEL 3.71.
The budget performance report shows that in 2021 the government received a revenue of GEL 543 million from excise tax on gasoline and diesel, as well as other petroleum products. Revenues from VAT on fuel amounted to about GEL 640 million. As a result, consumers and businesses paid GEL 1,160,000,000 in fuel excise and VAT to the government last year. This was 10% of the budget’s tax revenue.
