The cost of petrol and diesel rose by a respective one and two cents per litre on 1 May and this increase has already had an impact. At the end of July, Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna announced to the press that diesel sales had dropped by 6%.
In response to a parliamentary question submitted by LSAP MP Mars Di Bartolomeo, Gramegna has provided further details on fuel sales following the excise increase. In 2018, the months of May and June saw Luxembourgish petrol stations sell around 365 million litres of diesel. One year later, petrol stations sold only 342 million litres in the same period. A preliminary conclusion of the fuel excise increase is that it has already had an impact on fuel tourism.
However, petrol sales have not faltered. Whilst petrol prices are also higher, 80 million litres of petrol were sold in May and June 2018 compared to 82 million in the same period this year.
However, the first six months of 2019 still reveal an increase in diesel sales compared to 2018, with around 44,000 more litres sold between January and June 2019.
