The August 4 decree: fuel excise duties and the Phlegraean Fields in the same measure

On August 4, 2026, the Council of Ministers, meeting at Palazzo Chigi under the chairmanship of Giorgia Meloni, approved a decree-law that combines two separate interventions. The first concerns fuel: the 17-cent-per-liter reduction on the price of diesel used as fuel, which was due to expire on August 7, has been extended until August 24, 2026. Alongside it, the tax credit for road haulage has also been extended for the entire month of August.

The second intervention stems from the seismic events of July 31 and August 1 in the Phlegraean Fields. The decree provides for a contribution toward temporary independent housing for families whose homes are uninhabitable, of up to 900 euros per month for larger households.

The document available is the Government’s official press release, not yet the text of the decree published in the Official Gazette: what we are reading, therefore, is the summary that the executive itself chose to disseminate, not the legislative text. The statement does not specify the criteria used to define a “larger” household, nor the total number of beneficiaries expected for the Phlegraean contribution, nor the financial coverage of the two measures. Such information typically only emerges once the full text is published and, subsequently, with the technical report accompanying conversion into law.

It should also be noted that the excise duty extension is short: seventeen days, from August 7 to August 24. The statement does not indicate whether this will be the final extension or whether the discount will be further extended into September, as has happened on other occasions in previous years with similar measures.

In terms of media coverage, the available summary places the two measures — excise duties and the Phlegraean Fields — side by side as if they carried equal political and media weight, when in fact they are provisions of opposite nature: one is a recurring measure supporting energy prices, applicable across the entire national territory; the other is an emergency response to a localized seismic event, with beneficiaries identified by housing condition. The Council of Ministers’ statement treats them in sequence, within the same legislative act, but the implementation timelines — which require different implementing decrees, one from the Customs Agency for excise duties, the other from Civil Protection for the contributions — are not comparable simply because they were signed on the same day.

The decree matters because it intertwines two types of public intervention that rarely appear in the same measure: a price-containment measure with immediate effect on those purchasing diesel, and direct support for families who have lost access to their homes due to a natural event. The excise duty extension has a fixed deadline of August 24, whereas the contribution for the Phlegraean Fields, according to the available statement, has no indicated end date.