Gasoline

In Hungary the current gasoline price is 5.64 per gallon, or 480 Forint/liter. This is a government controlled price. There is no price war between different gas stations, the government establishes the max price and that is it. People like one gas station versus another because of the neighborhood, the ambiance, cleanliness and whatever else make a driver choose one station against another.

Now here is the interesting part. It seems that people who live close to the other side of the Hungarian border have the tendency to drive over because of the cheaper gas and that can strain the supply. Because it happened that gas stations were selling gas for less than it cost them to buy it, the government came up with a peculiar plan.

Foreign cars and trucks can buy gas in Hungary but they have to pay a different rate which is about twice of the current regulated domestic rate. This is very interesting.

According to our information, no more credit card payments, all payments must be made inside and for Hungarians the presentation of a valid identification is necessary to get the "reduced" price.

Can we picture this two tier system in this country? One price for the democrats and one price for the republicans. One will get the lower cost gas while the other will pay more. And depending which party will be in majority in congress that is how the pricing system will work. Half the country will get cheap gas the other will pay through the nose.