The 1 billion euro support package to cushion the consequences of the war in the Middle East has major consequences for drinks sellers and petrol station owners. The government wants to ease the pain with the package, which is especially hard for companies in the border region.
The money from the support package must be raised by increasing the excise duty on alcohol. This money will provide, among other things, a higher mileage allowance for employees and a reduction in motor vehicle tax for vans. Gas station owners hoped that fuel taxes would be reduced, but that was not the case.
“We now see a small strip along the border where people have been driving to Germany for some time for groceries, drinks, washing the car and then something to eat. That strip will of course become increasingly larger,” warns entrepreneur Richard Fieten in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata. His company Fieten Olie from Hollandscheveld has 110 pumps, 25 of which are in the border region.
This is because petrol station owners are competing against fuel prices at their German colleagues, where diesel and petrol are up to 15 and 35 cents cheaper, respectively, than in the Netherlands. While in Germany fuel excise duties will be reduced by another 17 cents in May. “Then the difference will be more than 50 cents per liter, and people will abandon gas stations in the Netherlands even more,” predicts Fieten.
This call to arrange all kinds of matters beyond the German border is further stimulated by the rising excise duty on alcohol in our country. In Germany, the excise duty on spirits has not been increased since 1983, while excise duty is not even imposed on beer and wine.
“It actually paid off to go to Germany, and the differences are now only becoming greater,” says Betty de Boer, director of SpiritsNL, the trade association of beverage companies. “Sometimes it just saves five to eight euros for a bottle, which becomes even more drastic.”
Moreover, there is a chance that the excise tax increase will not even generate the necessary money for the support package. A similar measure was taken in 2024 to provide financial support, but because more than 9 percent of beverage turnover flowed to Germany, this goal was never achieved.
Both Fieten and De Boer would therefore have preferred a simple reduction in excise duties on fuel. “There is that wish,” says De Boer. “But we are going to increase excise duties elsewhere, while we are not helping the entrepreneurs who are suffering for this in a targeted enough manner. It is turning the world upside down.”
“With your full mind, as an entrepreneur you no longer open a shop in the border region. And what is already gone will not come back,” she says. In the long term, more and more facilities near the German border appear to disappear. “We’re not even sounding the alarm, we’re really pulling the emergency brake.”
With the absence of an excise duty reduction, Fieten remains less than hopeful. The end of the conflict in the Middle East is not yet in sight, and even if it were to end tomorrow, it would take at least two months for gasoline prices to fall back to their previous levels. “For now we are trying to keep our prices competitive and keep the customer at the pump, but in the border region that becomes difficult.”
In order to keep their heads above water, more and more petrol pumps are choosing to continue unmanned. “It is becoming increasingly difficult. We see, especially among independent gas station owners with a shop where they sell tobacco, that they no longer earn anything.”
These gas stations are often sold, closed or left unmanned in order to reduce costs. “We already have most stations unmanned along the border region,” says Fieten. “And a number that still have a shop, we are looking at whether we should not close them as well. That will be the future,” he expects.
