Independent gas stations warn that they will have to close because they cannot afford the discount

The Spanish Association of Retail Vendors of Fuels and Fuels (Aevecar), which brings together independent and franchised service stations, has warned in a statement that the measures announced by the Government to discount fuels may cause some stations to close "before the impossibility of serving its customers as established in the Royal Decree".

As explained by the association, the regulations establish that "it is the service stations that have to advance that bonus of 20 cents per liter" to customers who are going to refuel after April 1.

This general measure, they consider, does not take into account that there are also small stations that

.

Thus, they recall that "the service station sector is made up of companies of very different economic magnitude" and there are both large companies and SMEs.

The latter, the statement highlights, "are suffering from a delicate economic situation since the pandemic, where they were considered essential services and were open despite mobility restrictions, which caused them considerable losses from which they have not yet been able to fully recover." ".

Therefore, although they recognize the need to apply "urgent measures to mitigate the economic damage that the war in Ukraine is causing", they do not believe that the Government's response is correct.

The Executive will discount 20 cents per liter of fuel, of which the State will contribute 15 and the additional five - when not more, since there are companies that have announced higher discounts - will come from the oil companies.

The measure is limited to those companies with refining capacity in Spain and

.

However, even if they do not have to assume those five cents, small gas stations will have to advance them when a customer refuels at their stations.

The 'low cost' gas stations recently warned that they were going to suffer the same problem.

"The Royal Decree establishes that these amounts advanced by the companies in the sector will be recovered through advances or refunds", they point out, but it does so "without specifying specific deadlines or giving security in the refunds themselves".

"It simply establishes that if within

of the request it has not been entered, it will be understood as denied," they lament.

Likewise, they denounce that just one day before the measure comes into force "they have not yet provided the official form to be able to request the refund or the advance of those amounts that the service stations have to pay."

All this gives rise to a situation in which many companies in the sector "do not have the necessary liquidity to deal with the advance payment of the bonuses of 20 cents per liter that the government has decreed."

Given this situation, they consider that they only have the possibility of closing their facilities, since they will not be able to serve customers and apply the discount.

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