How much goes to the state per litre of petrol?

For each litre of standard 95 petrol bought in Romania in 2026, the state collects approximately 3.30 RON: 2.030 RON fixed excise + 1.27 RON VAT (19% of the net price). That means roughly 47-49% of the pump price goes directly to the state budget.

What's the diesel excise in 2026?

Standard diesel excise in Romania is 1.855 RON/L in 2026, per the Tax Code (Law 227/2015 as amended). With 19% VAT, the state collects approximately 3.10 RON per litre of diesel sold — about 41-44% of the final price.

What's the gas station markup?

The network + station commercial markup (distribution, transport, retail margin) averages 0.80-1.20 RON/L in Romania. Capped by OUG 19/2026 between 1 April and 30 June 2026 at the 2025 average.

Why is petrol more expensive than diesel when diesel excise is lower?

The difference isn't excise-driven, it's ex-refinery cost. Petrol has higher production costs (more complex refining), and global demand differences (diesel demand spikes in winter) influence the Platts Rotterdam quote that drives the ex-refinery price.

What's the legal basis for excise calculation?

The Romanian Tax Code (Law 227/2015), Title VIII — Excise duties. Amounts are updated annually by Ministry of Finance order, in RON, indexed to inflation, with EU floors per Directive 2003/96/EC.

Excise transparency — how much of Romanian fuel price goes to the state

Name: Romanian fuel price breakdown
Creator: PretCarburant.ro
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

How much of each leu paid at a Romanian pump goes to the state budget as excise and VAT, how much remains for refinery cost, and how much goes to the retailer as commercial markup. Live calculation refreshed every 2 hours, citable for press under Creative Commons BY 4.0.

Price breakdown — live calculation

Current average pump price in Romania (May 2026):

Per-litre breakdown — RON, May 2026
Component	Petrol 95	Diesel	Auto LPG
Pump price (avg)	9.17	9.72	4.37
Excise (Tax Code)	2.03	1.855	0.615
VAT 19% (from net)	1.46	1.55	0.7
Total to state	3.49 (38.1%)	3.41 (35.1%)	1.31 (30.0%)
Refinery cost + commercial markup	5.68	6.31	3.05

Methodology: Refinery cost + markup are grouped because no public real-time data separates them at national level. Estimates based on Platts Rotterdam ARA quotes + OMV Petrom quarterly reports suggest a ~70:30 (petrol) / 75:25 (diesel) refinery-to-markup ratio. OUG 19/2026 caps the markup portion.

The full formula

Pump price = (Ex-refinery cost + Distributor markup + Station markup + Excise) × 1.19

Where:
  - Ex-refinery cost = Platts Rotterdam ARA quote + transport + logistics
  - Distributor markup = wholesale margin (typical 0.15 - 0.30 RON/L)
  - Station markup = retail margin (typical 0.40 - 0.90 RON/L, capped by OUG 19/2026)
  - Excise = fixed amount (2.030 RON/L petrol, 1.855 diesel, 0.615 LPG in 2026)
  - 1.19 = 19% VAT applied on the net total

Excise is computed on the value excluding VAT, but VAT applies on top of excise. In other words, you pay VAT on excise too — a small fiscal detail many miss.

Excise rates in 2026

Per the Romanian Tax Code (Law 227/2015) and Ministry of Finance annual update orders:

2026 excise rates — RON/L or RON/kg
Fuel	2026 excise	2025 excise	Change
Unleaded petrol	2.030 RON/L	1.940 RON/L	+4.6%
Standard diesel	1.855 RON/L	1.775 RON/L	+4.5%
Auto LPG	0.615 RON/L	0.590 RON/L	+4.2%
Aviation kerosene	0 RON/L (exempt)	0 RON/L	—
CNG	0.300 RON/kg	0.290 RON/kg	+3.4%

Annual indexation tracks inflation per Article 342 of the Tax Code. The 2026 update was confirmed by MFP Order 4543/2025.

EU excise comparison

Romanian petrol excise is among the lowest in the EU. Diesel excise is near the EU average:

EU petrol excise — selected countries 2026 (EUR/L)
Country	Petrol excise	Diesel excise
Netherlands	0.82	0.52
Italy	0.73	0.62
Germany	0.65	0.47
France	0.68	0.59
Spain	0.47	0.38
Romania (EUR equiv)	~0.41	~0.37
Bulgaria	0.36	0.33
Poland	0.38	0.32
Czechia	0.49	0.40
EU minimum (2003/96/EC)	0.359	0.330

For direct pump-price comparison see European prices.

How OUG 19/2026 affects the calculation

Romanian Emergency Ordinance 19/2026 (Official Gazette 237 of 26 March 2026) caps the commercial markup portion at 2025 average levels during 1 April – 30 June 2026.

Excise and VAT are unaffected — they remain at statutory levels.
Ex-refinery cost continues to fluctuate with Platts.
Only the commercial markup is capped (estimated ~1.00 RON/L petrol, ~0.95 diesel).
Major networks display nationwide-uniform prices as a result — Petrom Cluj has the same price as Petrom Constanța for 95 petrol.

See the live OUG 19/2026 tracker for per-network compliance monitoring.

Journalistic use and citation

Data on this page is published under Creative Commons BY 4.0. Free to use in press articles, academic papers or your own apps with visible attribution: "Source: PretCarburant.ro / excise-transparency".

For an academically citable reference, use the Zenodo dataset DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19560194.

For real-time data (single-hour snapshot for an article), use the public REST API v1: returns JSON at /api/v1/preturi and /api/v1/preturi/minime.