Excise duties and mechanisms for RFT partial refunds on diesel in Europe - March 2025

CNR updates its European overview of the specific taxation applied to diesel in Europe and details the arrangements for partial refunds of excise applicable to road freight transport put in place in each country.

Highlights in this 30th March 2025 overview:

• Nine Member States applied partial refunds on diesel « for commercial use ». 
• Three countries had excise duties on diesel « for non-commercial use » (general use, full duty) at or below the European minimum (33 c€/L) and eight countries had excise duties on diesel « for commercial use » (heavy goods vehicle with a GVWR greater than or equal to 7.5 tonnes) at or below the European minimum.
• On March 30th, 2025, excise duty on diesel “for commercial use” (road freight transport) varies from 27.05 c€/L in Poland to 59.57 €/hl in Ireland, i.e. a range of 32.52 c€/L. The average is 41.71 c€/L and the median 40.32 c€/L. 
• An increase in excise duties on diesel is observed in 13 European countries, sometimes strong as in Romania (+13.8 c€/L), in Lithuania (+11 c€/L) or in Denmark (+9 c€/L). These increases are often progressive, as in the case of Luxembourg, which rose from 33.50 c€/L in 2018 to 45.26 c€/L in 2025, placing it, this year, ahead of France on excise duties on diesel « for commercial use ».
• No longer does any Member State apply temporary measures to excise duties on diesel. As a reminder, these measures were put in place in 2022 to decrease the excise duties on diesel during the oil prices hike and some had lasted until the end of 2024. Only the United Kingdom has maintained temporary measures on its excise duties on diesel.
• Portugal reduces the eligible volume for commercial diesel from 50,000 litres to 40 000 litres per year. However, this ceiling remains high and allows a truck to cover around 150,000 kilometres per year.

The case of France :

• France is in second place, behind Italy, of the European countries where the excise duties applied to diesel “for non-commercial use” are the highest.
• Despite its mechanism of partial refund of excise duties, France remains among the countries where excise duties on diesel “for commercial use” are high, placing it in nineth place among the twenty-seven Member States. France, however, is ranked in a better place than in the April 2024 ranking due to increases in excise duties on diesel « for private use » in several European countries (Luxembourg, Lithuania and Romania).

Download the study to discover the updated diesel excise duty rates in Europe.