Serbia will cut fuel excise duties by a further 40% from Friday, following a 20% cut on March 13, in a move to keep the prices under control and ensure that the market is fully supplied amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East and surging global oil prices, president Aleksandar Vucic said.
The law allows the government to cut fuel excise duties by up to 20% but an option has now been found for an additional decrease to prevent price shocks at the pump, Vucic said at a press conference broadcast by Tanjug news agency.
In the weeks to come, excise duty on petrol will stand at 28.80 dinars ($0.28/0.24 euro) per litre, as compared to 72 dinars before the March 13 cut. For diesel, it will be 29.62 dinars per litre, as compared to 74.04 dinars before March 13.
Serbia's budget for 2026 estimates that the revenue from excise duties on petroleum derivatives will rise by an annual 7.9% to 244 billion dinars, representing about 10% of total budget revenues for this year.
Vucic said on Friday that the cut in excise duties will lead to monthly losses for the state budget of about 103 million euro ($119 million). "If this lasts for two or three months, we can handle it. But if it lasts longer, I am afraid we would have to find ways to use foreign exchange reserves," he added.
To alleviate the impact on the state budget, Vucic said the government is ready to offer oil companies 40,000 tonnes of diesel, which it said on Thursday will be released from reserves, at a discounted price of 180 dinars per litre, aiming to soften the cut in excise duties.
The maximum retail price for diesel for the March 20-27 period has been set at 212 dinars per litre, up by 4 dinars from the week before, while for petrol it is 188 dinars per litre, up by 2 dinars from the March 13-20 period.
Vucic also said that Serbia's reserves stand at 587.5 million cubic metres of gas, 508,430 tonnes of diesel and 120,972 tonnes of petrol. The reserves of petrol and diesel are enough to cover about 90 days of consumption.
As part of the measures to protect the domestic market from the oil price surge, Serbia's government on Thursday also extended the ban on exports of diesel, petrol, and crude oil through April 2.
(SeeNews, March 20, 2026)
