MOTORISTS facing ever-rising diesel prices at filling stations across Spain will get extra help from the government.
As from September, forecourt tax cuts on a litre of diesel will rise to 20 cents.
The government started phasing out its fuel subsidies in July, after temporarily offering 20 cent VAT discounts on both petrol and diesel from April.
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However crude diesel prices started rising again as the phase out started last month, due to the uncertainty over the U.S.-Iran conflict and access to the Straits of Hormuz.
Diesel prices recorded a year-on-year increase of 15.7% in July, above the 15% threshold declared by the government over its measures to contain the impact of the war in Iran.
When the 15% mark is exceeded, the safeguard clause of the response plan is automatically triggered.
That means the tax cut on diesel will be raised to 20 cents per litre in September, compared to the 5 cents that was planned for next month.
In August, the subsidy was reduced from 15 to 10 cents, right at the peak time for motoring during the summer holidays.
In contrast, petrol registered a year-on-year rise of 7.3% in July, well below the 15% threshold, which is why the subsidy will be just 5 cents per litre next month.
The diesel subsidy rise comes as July’s inflation rate was revised upwards on Thursday by the National Statistics Institute(INE) compared to its initial figure.
The INE raised it by one tenth, to 3.6%, four tenths more than the previous month and mainly due to the higher price of fuels and lubricants for vehicles and electricity.
This is the highest rate since May 2024 and means that inflation has risen for five consecutive months.
However, the INE has kept core inflation unchanged from the data released two weeks ago – which does not take into account energy or unprocessed food as they are the most volatile components.
It records it at 3%, one tenth more than in June.
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