Serbia removes the 20% floor on falling fuel-excise cuts and rebases CPI indexation

What changed in detail

Serbia’s National Assembly adopted the Law on Amendments to the Excise Law (act no. 2590-26), published together with a wider tax-law package in Službeni glasnik RS br. 80/2026 of 1 September 2026. Article 1 removes the provision in Article 17 of the Excise Law that had capped the reduction of excise on petroleum derivatives at 20% of the last-published adjusted excise amount when derivative prices fell, and revises Article 17(4) so that annual CPI indexation of excise on petroleum derivatives (under Article 9(1)(1)–(3)) is calculated from the last-published adjusted excise amounts. The law enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette — 1 September 2026.

What it means

The 20% floor existed to stop a falling-price adjustment from compounding away too much excise; removing it lets the reduction track the formula without that ceiling. Combined with rebasing the annual CPI indexation to the last-published adjusted amount rather than an earlier base, the excise on petroleum derivatives can move further in either direction than the prior mechanism allowed. Fuel excise rate tables should be checked against the next-published adjusted amounts rather than assumed to follow the old 20% cap.