Fuel excise returned to the full indexed rate of 53.7 cents per litre on 3 August 2026.
That is 17.1c/L more than the July rate and 33.1c/L more than the April emergency rate. It also sits above the 52.6c pre-crisis baseline, because excise is indexed — there is no “back to normal” coming.
Work out what it costs you.
Fuel Excise Cost Calculator
Fuel excise returned to the full indexed rate of 53.7c per litre on 3 August 2026. Work out what that costs your fleet.
| Excise period | Rate | Annual excise cost | vs today |
|---|
This is one line item. There are eight others.
Fuel is the most visible cost pressure right now, but wages carry roughly half the weighting of the small business cost index. A Profit Diagnostic finds the levers that move more than fuel does.
How to read the result
The headline figure is the step-up from July, which is the increase that landed this month and the one most operators have not yet repriced for.
The revenue figure is the important one. At a 10% net margin, every dollar of unrecovered cost requires ten dollars of additional sales to replace. That comparison is usually what convinces people to have the pricing conversation rather than absorb it.
Fuel tax credits change the picture if you run heavy vehicles on public roads or use fuel off-road. The credit rate moves with the excise rate, so your net position depends on your entitlement. The offsets applied here are indicative — confirm your actual entitlement with your accountant.
What to do with the number
Recalculate cost per kilometre. Not fuel cost — total cost including maintenance, tyres, registration, insurance, finance, depreciation and driver time. Most operators quote from a figure built two or three years ago and adjusted by feel.
Check your contracts. Do they contain a fuel surcharge mechanism, and are you actually applying it? Do they contain rise-and-fall, and does fuel fall within scope? For fixed-price work quoted before March 2026 — what is the remaining exposure and how long does it run?
Move the surcharge before the base rate. A surcharge tied to a published index is far easier for a customer to accept than a rate increase, because it is visibly outside your control and it falls again when fuel does.
Do not absorb it quietly. The default Australian response to cost increases is absorption — thinner margins, longer hours, less taken out of the business. Absorbing this across a fleet for twelve months is a decision. Make it deliberately or not at all.
Where to go next
- Fuel Excise Is Back at 53.7c: What It Costs Your Fleet — the full breakdown
- Cost Per Kilometre: The Only Number That Matters in Transport
- Repricing Freight Rates After the 2026 Fuel Shock
- Vehicle and Fuel Costs for Trade Businesses
- The Profit Lever Hierarchy
Excise rates sourced from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. Current as at 7 August 2026. This calculator provides general information, not tax advice.