Fuel excise returns to its full indexed rate of 52.6 cents a litre on Monday, when the temporary reduction the government has run since April expires. The relief ends on Sunday 2 August. Petrol and diesel are both affected, as is the heavy vehicle road user charge.

The current settings were announced on 22 June. "Cuts to the fuel excise duty rate on petrol and diesel will continue with a 16 cents per litre reduction from 1 July to 2 August 2026," the announcement said. The reduction had been 32 cents a litre before 1 July. It was halved and given an end date in the same decision.

The increase drivers meet at the bowser will be about 17 cents a litre. Sixteen of those cents are the discount coming off. The other is indexation. Excise rises with the consumer price index twice a year, in February and August, and the factor applying from 3 August is 1.020.

Indexation does not require a parliamentary vote. The rate moves with the CPI figure and no bill is introduced. Making the temporary cut took a decision, and extending it in June took another. Letting it lapse takes neither.

The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, confirmed on Wednesday that the discount would not be extended again, saying it was never the government's intention for it to be permanent.

The national average for unleaded was about 193 cents a litre this week, up from 180 cents on 22 July. Peter Khoury of the NRMA said drivers should expect average prices to rise a few cents a litre, and that the rise would be gradual rather than immediate because individual sites reprice at different times.

Excise is a flat charge per litre. It does not move with the price of the fuel or the income of the driver, so the same 52.6 cents applies to a tradesperson's ute running 300 kilometres a day in outer Sydney and to a second car in the inner suburbs. Households with no alternative to driving pay it in proportion to the distance they cover, not to what they earn.

The heavy vehicle road user charge carried the same 16 cent reduction and loses it on the same day. That cost sits with freight operators before it reaches anyone else, which is the mechanism behind the government's own case for extending the relief in June: that lower pump prices limit flow-on increases in groceries and other goods. The argument works in reverse from Monday.

The full rate applies from Monday 3 August. The next scheduled indexation is in February.