The government will be reducing the excise duty on fuel to avoid an increase in petrol and diesel prices, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana announced in Parliament on Wednesday. 

Caruana said that, through a legal notice, the government will be reducing fuel tax following a sharp rise in the international price of oil.

The legal notice will be published on Thursday. 

The excise duty on unleaded petrol has been slashed from €490.058 to €359 per 1,000 litres, while the tax on diesel has been dropped to €330 from €413.078 

Caruana said prices at the pumping stations will remain the same. 

The measure, he said, will cost the government around €31 million over a year, equivalent to €2.5 million a month.

Commenting on the increase in oil prices, the minister said most European countries have experienced a rise of 20% to 30%.

The measure will remain in place until the end of 2022, Caruana said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.