RD_034: MBIE Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring (2026), NZ diesel price + tax breakdown

RD_034: MBIE Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring (2026), NZ diesel price + tax breakdown

Source

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-modelling/energy-statistics/weekly-fuel-price-monitoring — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Context: ni · Feeds D02 + D01 (farm diesel OpEx price)

Summary

MBIE’s weekly fuel price series is the authoritative source for the model’s diesel price. The key structural finding is that NZ diesel carries no fuel excise: road users pay Road User Charges separately, so the diesel pump price already excludes road tax and sits close to an off-road price. Farm/bulk off-road diesel is therefore only modestly below the pump price (GST plus forecourt margin), not the large gap petrol shows. The retrieved week is an elevated point in a 2026 price spike; the stable baseline is lower.

Key claims

- claim: "NZ DIESEL PRICE + TAX STRUCTURE. Week ending 2026-07-17: diesel board/discounted retail price 242.98 c/L (NZ$2.43/L); price excluding tax 194.97 c/L (NZ$1.95/L); importer cost 171.17 c/L. The only taxes in the pump price are ETS (~14.6 c/L), GST (~31.6 c/L) and a small ACC/local levy (~0.9 c/L): there is NO fuel excise line on diesel (road users pay Road User Charges separately by distance). So the diesel pump price already excludes road tax and approximates an off-road price. [verified against the raw: the 2026-07-17 diesel rows, board 242.98 and price-excluding-tax 194.97, confirmed]"
  source_location: "rd_034 CSV, week 2026w29 (2026-07-17), Diesel rows: board price 242.98, Price excluding tax 194.97, Importer cost 171.17 (NZD c/L)."
- claim: "2026 DIESEL PRICE CONTEXT (transient spike). The MBIE diesel board price rose from about 190-195 c/L (all of 2025 and early 2026) to a 384 c/L peak on 17 April 2026, then receded through mid-July 2026 (about 251 to 243 c/L). The stable NZ baseline is ~190-195 c/L; the current figure is elevated and falling. [derived from the CSV series]"
  source_location: "rd_034 CSV time series (2025 through mid-2026 diesel board price)."

Model use

• Firms the off-road diesel price. **Recommended model value ~2.00/L (GST-inclusive, bulk on-farm delivered), medium-high confidence**, sitting at or just below the stable retail baseline (~1.90-1.95/L, already excise-free and RUC-exempt at the pump). If GST-registered, effective ~1.70-1.75/L. Well below the interim 3.2/L genset placeholder and below Casey’s 2.70/L. To price current mid-2026 spot conditions instead, use ~2.40/L and flag it as elevated and declining. RD_034

Notes

• Role. The off-road/farm diesel price for the diesel-machinery fuel bill; also updates the genset diesel price reused elsewhere in D01.
• Bulk figure caveat. A clean published bulk on-farm per-litre figure (RD Petroleum, Allied, Farmlands) is quote-only, so the ~$2.00/L is the MBIE pump price minus documented bulk/GST components rather than a single supplier quote.
• Provenance. MBIE first-party dataset (CSV), authoritative, no retrieval-provenance block. The diesel week is verified against the raw.
• Scope. context ni, feeds d02 + d01.

Connections

Links to

EDT domains (2): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems · D02: Smart Food Systems & Agriculture

Referenced by

EDT domains (2): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems · D02: Smart Food Systems & Agriculture