The President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, says that the state will not intervene in fuel excise duties, as requested by transporters.
“Of the price of gasoline that a person pays at the pump, half is the crude price of refined crude oil and half is state excise duties. What I can say with certainty is that there is no question of intervening in this component of state taxes and excise duties,” said the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan.
The price of fuel in Romania is no longer determined only by the evolution of oil, but also by taxes and excise duties, which have increased constantly between 2020 and 2026, a period in which the price at the pump rose by over 80%, according to an analysis published on Saturday by the president of the Smart Energy Association (AEI), Dumitru Chisăliță.
“In Romania, the discussion about fuel almost always starts with “how much is a barrel” and ends with “who is skinning us”. The data from 2020 and 2026 tell a more uncomfortable and clearer story: with each passing year, diesel and gasoline are becoming less and less of a market product and more and more of a fiscal and administrative mechanism, in which the state increases the share of taxes and costs increase rapidly. The price at the pump is no longer just market. It is also fiscal policy. In 2020, 63% of each liter of fuel went to the state budget. In 2026, the percentage reaches 69%. This means that almost 7 out of 10 lei paid at the pump are not oil, not transportation, not refining and not even commercial margin. It is public money”, says Dumitru Chisăliță, according to Agerpres.
In his opinion, between 2020 and 2026, the total cost of fuels increased massively: diesel from 4.73 to 8.67 lei/liter (+83%), and gasoline from 4.81 to 8.24 lei/liter (+71%), which shows a structural increase in price fueled by three main factors – raw materials, taxation and internal costs.
According to the president of AEI, the strongest increases come from taxes: excise duties rose by approximately 62% (diesel 1.73 – 2.80 lei/liter, gasoline 1.89 – 3.06 lei/liter), and VAT per liter increased by percentages ranging between 64-70% (diesel 0.92 – 1.51 lei/liter, gasoline 0.84 – 1.43 lei/liter). During the same period, Brent crude oil expressed in lei/liter also increased by approximately 62%, and the exchange rate only by 12%, which shows that, in the last five years, the main driver of the price increase was not only the oil market, but also taxation.
“Just from these two lines (excise duty + VAT), the differences are already huge. Basically, taxation is not “part of the price”; it becomes the axis, thus the price is reconstructed around taxation. (…) Excise duty increases just like the raw material. VAT increases because the base increases. If it were only oil, we would be discussing global volatility. But the figures show something else: the main driver of the price increase in the last 5 years is fiscal,” explained Dumitru Chisaliță in his analysis.
On the other hand, the data show that the operational chain has not remained stable either: transportation has increased by 407%, refining by 641%, and distribution by 50%. “Refining is increasing by more than six times in percentage terms. It is a huge dynamic. This means that the pressure does not come only from taxes, but also from the actual cost of producing and delivering fuel in Romania. The system is becoming structurally more expensive,” explained Chisăliță.
In conclusion, the data presented by the president of AEI shows that, between 2020 and 2026, the price of fuel at the pump in Romania increased by approximately 80%, while oil increased by 62%, and the exchange rate only registered an increase of 12%. During the same period, excise duties rose by over 62%, and VAT per liter by over 70%, which increased the share that goes directly or indirectly to the budget, from 63% to 69%.
“This means that almost 7 lei out of 10 paid at the pump are tax money. It is not the market that dominates the price. Not the commercial margin. Not the exchange rate. The tax structure dominates the price. When the state constantly increases the share, when taxes grow faster than the raw material, the responsibility can no longer be transferred only to “greed” or “external conjuncture”. The harsh reality is that even a liter of fuel has become mainly a budget collection instrument. And when almost 70% of the price is taxation, the price increase is no longer a market accident. It is an economic policy choice”, concluded the president of the Smart Energy Association, Dumitru Chisăliță.
