What would a fuel subsidy cost Australia?
A subsidy knocks a set amount off every litre, paid for by the government. Pick an amount to see the national bill each day, what it does to pump prices and what it saves on your fill.
Loading fuel use figures…
The cost
What would it cost?
Subsidy a litre
Who gets it
0cOr drag: 20c a litre100c
A day——
Over 30 days—change the days under “How we worked it out”
Your 50 L fill$10.00 lessif your fuel is covered
A subsidy isn’t an excise cut. The government pays 20c on every eligible litre instead of collecting less tax, so there’s no extra GST saving and excise stays at 53.7c. See what an excise cut would save →
Covers all petrol and diesel use, private and business, including trucks, farms and mining, and assumes the whole 20c reaches the pump.
Prices
What would prices look like?
Petrol——
Diesel——
Petrol is the average of unleaded 91 and E10. The averages are updated daily, so they can trail the pump by a day or so.
Each 10c
What does each extra 10c cost?
| Subsidy | Your fill | A day | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10c | $5.00 | — | — |
| 20c | $10.00 | — | — |
| 30c | $15.00 | — | — |
| 50c | $25.00 | — | — |
MethodHow we worked it out
How we worked it out
Change the assumptions
Litres. A typical car tank holds 45 to 60 L.
Days.
Millions. Blank uses our estimate from the official figures. Changing who gets it clears this.
- The fuel volume. Daily use is worked out from the official stock and days-of-cover figures behind the supply page (fuelplan.gov.au). It’s a planning estimate, not a live count of sales.
- The calculation. Daily cost = subsidy in cents × eligible million litres a day × $10,000. The total is that times the number of days. A 20c subsidy on a 50 L fill is $10.
- What it leaves out. Running costs, changes in GST collected, fuel tax credits, and people buying more fuel when it’s cheaper. It’s an illustration, not a Treasury costing.
- Who gets it. By default, all petrol and diesel use, including commercial and off-road. A scheme for private cars only, or a means-tested one, would cover fewer litres. It’s separate from the excise cut calculator; the two don’t add together.