You pay €1.989 per litre for petrol in Belgium. Of that, €0.960 (48.3%) is tax and €1.029 is the product itself — crude oil, refining, transport and the retailer's margin combined. The tax is made up of €0.600 excise duty, €0.015 in other levies, and €0.345 VAT at 21%.
Fuel is one of the most heavily taxed products in Europe, and the split between what the fuel costs and what the state collects explains most of the price gap between neighbouring countries. Here is exactly how the money you pay for each litre is split up in Belgium, using the European Commission's weekly figures from 19 October 2026.
| Component | Per litre | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Product cost | €1.029 | 51.7% |
| Excise duty | €0.600 | 30.2% |
| ASEVA contribution (strategic stocks) | €0.015 | 0.8% |
| VAT (21%) | €0.345 | 17.3% |
| Total tax | €0.960 | 48.3% |
| Pump price | €1.989 | 100% |
✱ Tax figure corrected according to ASEVA (aseva.be)
The fuel itself: crude oil, refining, storage, transport to the station and the retailer's margin. The European Commission reports these as a single figure. This is the part that moves when oil markets move — and it is broadly similar across the EU, because everyone buys on the same world market.
A fixed amount per litre set by the national government, charged whatever the oil price does. Excise is the single biggest reason a litre costs more in one country than in its neighbour: it does not fall when crude falls.
The contribution to ASEVA, the Belgian agency that holds the country’s strategic oil stocks. Its rate is set every quarter and published on aseva.be; it is charged per litre, before VAT. The European Commission’s tax table does not include it.
Value added tax at 21%, applied to everything above — including the excise duty. That is why VAT is a tax on a tax, and why a rise in crude prices raises the tax take automatically.
Filling a 50-litre tank in Belgium costs about €99.45 at today's price. €48.00 of that goes to the state and €51.45 covers the fuel itself. Put differently: roughly 48.3% of every fill-up is tax.
At 48.3%, the tax share in Belgium is 3.7 percentage points above the EU average of 44.6%. Across the 27 member states Belgium ranks 6th by tax burden on petrol.
The most heavily taxed petrol in the EU right now is in Netherlands (53.0%); the lightest burden is in Poland (29.8%).
We do not yet have a full year of comparable breakdown data for Belgium.
48.3% — €0.960 of every €1.989 litre. That is €0.600 in excise duty, €0.015 in other levies and €0.345 in VAT.
Almost always because of excise duty, not the fuel itself. Every EU country buys on the same world market, so product cost is similar everywhere (€1.029 per litre here). What differs is the fixed duty each government adds — and the VAT rate applied on top of it.
Yes. VAT at 21% is calculated on the full price including excise, so it is charged on the tax too. This is why the total tax take rises automatically whenever crude oil gets more expensive.
Weekly. The figures come from the European Commission's Oil Bulletin, which member states report every Monday and the Commission publishes mid-week. The numbers on this page are from 19 October 2026.
Crude oil, refining margin, storage, transport to the filling station and the retailer's own margin — reported by the Commission as one combined figure of €1.029 per litre. It is not broken down further at source.
Source: European Commission — Weekly Oil Bulletin. Data from 19 October 2026 · European Commission Weekly Oil Bulletin.