Excise duty on diesel, the cut does not expire today: a decree pushes it to August 26

The new development of the last few hours overturns the deadline reported by Redazione Zero in this morning’s edition, August 24, in the article “Today the cut in excise duty on diesel expires: from August 25, 17 cents return”. The Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti has signed a decree extending until August 26, 2026 the reduction on automotive diesel, which was due to expire precisely on the 24th. The return of the full price, which according to this morning’s regulatory framework would have taken effect tomorrow, is thus postponed by two days.

The measure amounts to about 17 cents per litre. Its structure had been defined by the Council of Ministers on August 4, which with a decree-law had extended the discount from August 7 to 24, breaking it down into 14 cents of excise duty and 3 of VAT. The extension signed now does not modify the amount: it only shifts the final deadline, leaving intact the framework set three weeks ago.

The point distinguishing this step from the previous one is the coverage. The extension rests on the mobile excise duty mechanism, which allows returning to consumers the higher VAT revenue collected when fuel prices rise: for the two additional days, 20.8 million euros were used. This is a coverage that self-sustains only as long as the excess revenue exists, and which must be recalculated at every renewal. Hence the asymmetrical length of the two measures: seventeen days for the first, two for the second.

This asymmetry is the most politically legible data of the day. A forty-eight-hour extension is not a policy choice on fuel prices: it is a technical postponement, with a horizon that runs out before the end of the month. The Partito Democratico criticized the decision, calling it one of the government’s “stopgap measures” and instead called for action on the extra-profits of energy companies. On the merits of the proposal the available material offers no elements for quantification, and this newspaper adds none.

It remains to note that on the actual duration of the extension the Italian press was not aligned in the early hours: the front-page review curated by the ANSA agency reported an extension of just one day, while the text of the decree signed at the Ministry of Economy indicates August 26. Redazione Zero publishes the date of the decree, which is the source closest to the act; should a different version emerge from the final text in the Gazzetta, the correction will appear in this article with a visible note and in the following editorial.

For readers, the practical effect is circumscribed and datable. From August 27, absent a further decree, automotive diesel will again bear the full excise duty in its entirety, with an expected price increase of around 17 cents per litre including the VAT share. The cost to public coffers of the two days gained is already recorded: 20.8 million. And the fact that an act by the minister is needed to shift a deadline by forty-eight hours indicates that the decision on what happens after the 26th has not been made, but only postponed by a scant working week.