The House of Representatives has decided to postpone the January 2024 excise tax increase by one year. In this way, MPs want to prevent prices at the pump from skyrocketing. Yet in the Netherlands you will find the most expensive petrol in Europe. What’s up with that?
The gasoline price consists of several components: the crude oil price and refining costs, storage and transport costs, operating costs, VAT and excise duty. The latter two elements cause major differences between European countries. Governments themselves determine the level of excise duty and VAT on fuel.
The excise duty is a fixed amount per liter of petrol. This amount is normally increased annually on January 1 with the inflation correction.
“The level of excise duty is purely a political choice,” says Paul van Selms, director of consumer organization UnitedConsumers. He believes that other countries levy more taxes elsewhere and thinks that the total costs of transport do not differ much from country to country.
Highest excise duty in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands you pay 79 cents in excise duty per liter of petrol. In our neighboring countries Belgium and Germany you pay 60 and 65 cents in tax per liter. On average, Europeans pay 53 cents in excise duty per litre.
In the Netherlands we now pay around 2.30 euros for 1 liter of petrol, in Germany it is 1.90 euros and in Belgium just a little less. In the Netherlands, just like in Belgium, we pay 21 percent VAT on our fuel. In Germany, VAT is 19 percent. VAT is levied on the fuel price including excise duty.
2023-09-22 18:03:32
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