(ANSA) - Consumer groups organising a new 'strike' against high prices have decided to extend their protest to the fuel pump where the cost gasoline has soared
in recent months.
Intesa, an umbrella group for a host of consumer rights activists, said that on September 14 it will ask Italians to boycott those companies which charge the highest pump prices.
Gasoline prices leapt 9.5% in July over June while soaring crude prices are in large part responsible for pushing Italy's annual inflation rate to 2.1% last month.
The consumer protest will also be aimed at the government because of the state's rolling tax rate on fuel which, thanks to higher pump prices, has allow it to take in an additional 4.2 billion euro over the past four years.
"The government keeps announcing that it is going to do something to resolve the pump price problem but then does practically nothing about it," Intesa said. Motorist-consumers are also being broadside by rising car insurance costs, Intesa added, "which have climbed by 2.2% in a year and 132.7% in the past eight years, whereas in France they have declined 5% thanks to real competition between companies."
During the September 14 protest, Intesa said farmer associations will bring their products to sell to the public in city squares at the price they receive in order to show how much goes to the middle men.
The September 14 protest will be the fifth consumers' strike organised by Intesa.
