Italy to spend 417 million euros to cut excise duties on fuels, decree shows

ROME, March 19 (Reuters) - Italy has set aside some 417.4 million euros ($478 million) to cut excise duties on fuels until April 7, a decree approved by the cabinet late on Wednesday showed, as Rome struggles to find ways to help families and firms cope with high energy costs.

Published in the Official Gazette, the decree cut excise duties on gasoline and diesel to 472.90 euros per 1,000 litres from 672.9.

The government plans to cover the cost of the excise duty reduction through spending cuts, the decree added.

Analysts and opposition politicians criticised Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying the move was driven by the need to drum up support ahead of a key referendum next week on a highly divisive government plan to reform the judiciary.

"A political stunt paid by taxpayers. Nothing else," Wolfango Piccoli, of the London-based political risk consultancy Teneo, wrote on X.

($1 = 0.8734 euros)