Federal Government extends fuel margin cap until the end of November

The Federal Government has extended the margin limitation on fuels by one month; the price regulation, which was set to expire on October 31, 2026, will therefore remain in force until November 30, 2026. The ordinance BGBl. II No. 315/2026, published in the Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria (Part II) on October 30, 2026, replaces the date “October 31” with the date “November 30” in the original ordinance. On the same day, the Fuel Price Cushioning Ordinance November 2026 was published as BGBl. II No. 316/2026, which stipulates temporary mineral oil tax rates for the extended period.

Legal Basis and Structure of the Amendment

The amendment is based on § 5aa of the Price Act, BGBl. No. 145/1992, most recently amended by the Federal Act BGBl. I No. 13/2026. It was issued as an ordinance of the entire Federal Government and amends the existing Ordinance on Margin Limitation for Fuels in two places:

• In § 5 of the original ordinance, the expiration date “October 31” is replaced by “November 30”.
• After § 5, a new paragraph is inserted, stating that § 5 in the version of the current amendment enters into force on October 31, 2026.

Thus, the margin limitation is not re-enacted, but rather extended in its temporal scope of application – the regulatory mechanism remains unchanged, and the period of validity grows by one further month until the end of November 2026.

Tax Rates for Gasoline and Gas Oil in November

The price measure is supplemented by the Fuel Price Cushioning Ordinance November 2026, which the Federal Minister of Finance issued on the basis of § 64 Para. 5 of the Mineral Oil Tax Act 2022 (BGBl. No. 630/1994, most recently amended by BGBl. I No. 82/2026). It regulates the temporary reduction of tax rates according to §§ 3 and 64 of the Mineral Oil Tax Act 2022 with the aim of cushioning excessive price increases for particularly common fuels. The tax rates are:

• 415 Euro per 1,000 liters of gasoline according to § 3 Para. 1 No. 1 lit. a MinStG 2022, provided the tax liability arises after October 31, 2026, and before December 1, 2026.
• 330 Euro per 1,000 liters of gas oil according to § 3 Para. 1 No. 4 lit. a MinStG 2022, under the same temporal condition.

Limitation, Condition, and Signatories

The tax regulation is subject to an explicit condition: it will only enter into force on November 1, 2026, if the Federal Government has previously issued a regulation pursuant to § 5aa of the Price Act 1992 for November 2026. It shall expire at the end of November 30, 2026, but remains applicable to gasoline and gas oil for which the tax liability arises before December 1, 2026. Both legal acts are thus designed to be temporally congruent: the price margin and the tax rate expire together at the end of the month, without previously incurred tax liabilities being subsequently altered.

The regulation BGBl. II No. 315/2026 bears the signatures of the members of the Federal Government:

• Stocker
• Babler
• Bauer
• Hattmannsdorfer
• Holzleitner
• Karner
• Marterbauer
• Schumann
• Sporrer
• Tanner
• Wiederkehr

The regulation BGBl. II No. 316/2026 is signed by Marterbauer and was officially signed on October 30, 2026, at 1:12 PM.

What the extension means for drivers

With the amendment, the margin limitation does not end on October 31, as originally planned, but only on November 30, 2026. For the entire month of November, both the limitation of trade margins for fuels and the reduced mineral oil tax rates of 415 euros per 1,000 liters of gasoline and 330 euros per 1,000 liters of gas oil apply. Both measures are explicitly time-limited; an extension beyond November 30, 2026, is not provided for in the two legal acts promulgated on October 30, 2026.

Source: Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria, Part II, No. 315 of October 30, 2026, Regulation (official reference: BGBl. II No. 315/2026).