Diesel, fourth extension until September 10: the cut shifts to mobile excise duties

The 17-cent-per-litre cut on the diesel excise duty, which on August 27 we reported had been extended until September 5 through a decree-law approved in a quarter-hour Council of Ministers meeting, has been extended for a further five days. On September 4, 2026, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin signed the ministerial decree pushing the deadline to September 10. For the extension to take effect, publication in the Official Gazette is awaited.

The new development lies not only in the date. The instrument itself changes: no longer a decree-law approved by the Council of Ministers, but the mobile excise duty mechanism, activated through a measure signed by the two competent ministries. This is the device that allows the tax rate to be lowered using the excess VAT revenue generated by rising prices at the pump: when fuel costs more, the value-added tax collected increases, and part of that difference goes back into the discount. The bridge measure is worth about 60 million euros, drawn from the surplus VAT revenue for the month of August.

Comparing this with the previous step highlights the difference in scale. That extension had come via decree-law — Decree-Law 153/2026, of August 26 — with an estimated commitment of around 130 million, financed by bringing forward withholding taxes on dividends from major energy groups: a one-off solution, built on the contribution requested from the companies. Five days of discount drawn from VAT instead cost less than half as much, but they also cover a shorter time span.

Enterprise and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso had anticipated the move, speaking of “an interministerial decree to use the resources as structured through mobile excise duties.” The September 4 signing confirmed this approach.

On the price front, the rationale for the intervention remains unchanged. On September 4 the average self-service price on the road network was 2.046 euros per litre for petrol and 2.157 euros for diesel: levels at their highest in four years. The gap between the two fuels, with diesel more than eleven cents above petrol despite the discount in force, explains why the cut was concentrated on diesel rather than extended across the network as a whole.

The extension is openly described as a bridge toward a different approach. For the following week, a Council of Ministers meeting is expected to introduce selective measures aimed at lower-income brackets and haulage operators, replacing the across-the-board discount applied so far to anyone filling up. This is the shift already announced in late August but never turned into law: targeted support in place of a reduction equal for all. At the moment, the details of those measures — income thresholds, form of support, scope of the haulage sector — do not appear in the acts signed on September 4, and this remains the variable that will determine what happens from September 11 onward.

The tally, meanwhile, has reached four extensions, the latest of which expires on September 10.

Sources: Stampa Parlamento (source Italpress); ANSA; Il Mattino; InfoImpresa (source Adnkronos); Radio Roma (statements by Minister Urso); Altalex (text of Decree-Law 153/2026 in the Official Gazette).