Serbia Extends Lower Fuel Excise Tax to September 6
The government pushed back the expiry of lower fuel excise tax rates from August 30 to September 6. Diesel stays at 59.23, unleaded gasoline at 57.60 dinars per liter, a 20 percent cut.
Gasoline and diesel excise taxes in Serbia stay 20 percent below the amount set by the Law on Excise Taxes even past August 30, the date on which the current decision was due to expire: on August 29, Serbia’s government adopted amendments to the Decision on the Temporary Reduction of Excise Tax Amounts on Petroleum Products, pushing the deadline to September 6.
The temporary rates remain unchanged. The excise tax on leaded gasoline is 61.24 dinars per liter, on unleaded gasoline 57.60 dinars, and on gas oil, meaning diesel, 59.23 dinars per liter. The full legal excise tax is 72 dinars per liter for unleaded gasoline and 74.04 dinars per liter for diesel, so the reduction cuts about 14.4 dinars off every liter of gasoline and about 14.8 dinars off every liter of diesel for drivers.
Why the Deadline Moved Now
The decision was due to run through today, August 30. Had the government not extended the cut, excise taxes would have reverted to the full legal amount tomorrow, automatically raising fuel procurement costs for distributors ahead of the next calculation of maximum prices. Instead, the new September 6 deadline means drivers will not see a price jump on this basis in the first week of September.
The explanation given for the excise tax cut, now running for months, cites rising crude oil prices on the world market and the resulting increase in producer prices for petroleum products. The same reason was given in the earlier extensions.
Third Extension in a Row
The decision to cut excise taxes by 20 percent has been in force since July 20, when it replaced the previous 10 percent reduction that had applied through July 19. The first extension of the 20 percent cut ran through August 23, after which the government pushed the deadline to August 30; that decision was signed by Prime Minister Djuro Macut and published in the Official Gazette on August 22. The current change, extending the cut to September 6, is the third in that series.
On the same day it adopted the excise tax amendment, the government also extended the ban on exports of oil and oil derivatives, this time through September 30. Both measures belong to the same package protecting the domestic market from supply disruptions.
What It Means at the Pump
Lower excise taxes do not automatically mean lower prices at the pump, since maximum retail fuel prices are calculated separately, based on movements in the oil price and the exchange rate. The current price list, in effect through Friday, September 4, caps Euro diesel at 232 dinars per liter and Euro premium BMB 95 gasoline at 203 dinars per liter. Srpske novine covered that price list earlier this week.
For comparison, when the excise tax cut was raised to 20 percent in mid-July, Euro diesel cost up to 222 dinars at the pump and BMB 95 gasoline up to 198 dinars per liter. The difference since then, ten dinars on Euro diesel and five on gasoline, comes from the calculation of maximum prices, not from the excise tax rate, which has stayed unchanged in the meantime.
The next signal for drivers comes at the end of this week, when the new fuel price list takes effect from Friday, September 4. The excise tax deadline, now extended to September 6, will by then already cover the first few days of the next pricing period.
