Diesel has exceeded 2 euros per liter and petrol is approaching 1.84 euros. Prices at the pump continue to rise and Italians await concrete answers.
The Meloni government, however, seems inclined to exclude cutting excise duties and to focus on a bonus system aimed at the less well-off groups. A divisive choice: on one side the executive, on the other consumer associations such as Codacons, who openly speak of the “wrong path”.
What the numbers say
The data speaks clearly. According to the findings of the Price Observatory of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (Mimit), on Sunday 15 March 2026 the average self-service price of fuel along the national road network is:
- 1.84 euros per liter for petrol;
- 2.07 euros per liter for diesel.
On the motorway network prices rise further:
- 1.93 euros for petrol;
- 2.13 euros for diesel.
Compared to the period before the conflict in Iran, petrol costs on average 15.3 cents more per litre, while diesel has actually increased by 32.3 cents. Translated into practical terms, according to Codacons:
a full tank of diesel costs each motorist an extra 17.3 euros, 415 euros more per year with an average of two full tanks per month.
The government: “Mobile excise duties are not enough”
The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, explained the executive’s position in an interview with Quotidiano Nazionale.
For the moment, the activation of the mobile excise duty mechanism is excluded. The motivation is above all economic and political: the cut wanted by then Prime Minister Mario Draghi in March 2022 “cost the State around a billion a month and did not achieve the objective of containing inflation”, since “inflation continued to grow”. Urso continues:
That cut came when petrol broke the ceiling of 2.25 euros/litre: today it is at 1.83 euros/litre, diesel just above 2, with a percentage increase significantly lower than what is recorded in Germany, France and Spain. None of these countries has decided to cut excise duties
The path indicated by the government is instead that of targeted compensatory interventions: a petrol bonus intended for the lowest incomes, probably with an ISEE threshold of under 15,000 euros, and specific measures for road transport and businesses. Urso hoped that the measures could be approved “already in the next Council of Ministers”.
Codacons attacks: “Inexact numbers and useless palliatives”
The reading of Codacons is very different, defining the government’s path as a “wrong path” and accusing Minister Urso of providing “inexact numbers” to support his theses. According to the consumer association:
The reduction in fuel taxation carried out by Draghi in March 2022 led the national inflation index to immediately drop by 0.5% (from 6.5% to 6%) which, translated into money and considering the consumption expenditure of Italian families for the year 2022, is equivalent to a saving of around 4 billion euros for the consumer community.
Codacons also recalls that, without the direct and indirect benefits of that cut, the inflation rate in Italy would have been even higher. The association openly criticizes the choice of the bonus, calling it a “useless palliative that does not solve the problem”, because it would reserve aid only for a part of the population instead of intervening on prices for everyone.
