Fuel prices drop 0.47% since November: decree adjusts single tax per liter

The Executive Branch adjusted downward by 0.47% the single tax per fuel type, for both national production and imported fuels, through Executive Decree No. 45978-H, published in La Gaceta No. 210 on Thursday, November 5, 2026 (p. 3). The reduction is effective from November 1, 2026, and applies to all fuels subject to the tax, although the price of LPG gas remains unchanged. The regulation was signed by President Laura Fernández Delgado and the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, with official reference D45978 - IN202601137420.

The adjustment is based on Article 3 of the Tax Simplification and Efficiency Law No. 8114, which requires the Ministry of Finance to update the tax amount quarterly according to the variation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculated by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC). That same article sets a ceiling of 3% for each quarterly adjustment, meaning the 0.47% reduction remains well below the legal limit.

The single tax falls upon the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (RECOPE), the country’s sole producer and importer of fuels, and is passed on to the final price paid by drivers and goods transport companies.

The variation explaining the reduction

The decree is based on the CPI levels of June and September 2026, which showed a negative quarterly variation:

• June 2026 CPI: 100.000
• September 2026 CPI: 99.530
• Resulting quarterly variation: -0.47%
• Legal adjustment limit per quarter: 3%
• LPG Gas: remains unchanged at ¢24.00 per liter

Recital VII of the decree indicates that, according to this variation, “it is appropriate to adjust the single tax per fuel type, both national production and imported, by minus zero point forty-seven percent (-0.47%) with respect to the current tax amount.” The text also refers to Article 3 of Executive Decree No. 29643-H, the regulation of the tax law, which orders the resulting amount to be rounded to the nearest twenty-five cents (0.25 colones).

Repeal of the August decree

Article 1 updates the tax amount established in Article 1 of Law No. 8114, published in Supplement No. 53 to La Gaceta No. 131 on July 9, 2001, and amended by Law No. 10110 of January 5, 2022, which created the tax and set the amount in colones per liter according to the type of fuel. Article 2 repeals Executive Decree No. 45878-H of July 17, 2026, which had updated the tax as of August 1, 2026, and was published in Supplement No. 101 to La Gaceta No. 144 on August 3, 2026.

Article 3 establishes the effective date: “It shall take effect as of November first, two thousand twenty-six.” The decree was issued at the Presidency of the Republic, in San José, on the fifteenth day of the month of October 2026.

Urgent publication without prior hearing

The Executive justified publishing the regulation after November 1—the date it already began to take effect—invoking reasons of public interest and urgency. According to recital VIII, the drafting, review, and approval of the decree began only after the INEC determined the September 2026 CPI, in the first days of October, which made it impossible to comply with the legal publication deadline.

For this reason, the 10-day hearing for representative entities required by article 174 of the Tax Norms and Procedures Code No. 4755 is waived. The decree also clarifies that it does not create or modify procedures for the taxpayer, therefore it does not require prior review by the Directorate of Regulatory Improvement and Technical Regulation of the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Commerce, and recalls that the function of updating the tax was transferred from the General Directorate of Taxation to the General Directorate of Treasury by resolution DGT-R-12-2014.

For readers, the practical effect is a marginal relief in the cost per liter: a reduction of 0.47% on the tax component, not on the total price of the fuel, which also incorporates the international cost of crude oil, the RECOPE margin, and the margin regulated by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP). The savings are small per liter, but they multiply in the daily consumption of cargo fleets, public transport, and private vehicles, and come after a year in which the tax was adjusted upward in August.

Source: La Gaceta, No. 210 of November 5, 2026, Decrees Section (Executive Branch), p. 3 (official reference: D45978 - IN202601137420).