Norway cuts petrol and diesel taxes temporarily to ease prices as Middle East conflict disrupts global energy supplies, costing billions

OSLO: Norway will temporarily slash taxes on petrol and diesel to counter rising prices caused by the Middle East war’s disruption of global energy supplies.

The government confirmed the cuts will take effect from April 1.

The tax on petrol will be reduced by 4.41 kroner per litre, while the diesel tax will be cut by 2.85 kroner per litre.

The reductions also apply to mineral oils used in fishing and hunting.

Parliament voted in favour of the reduction on March 26, despite opposition from the government.

The government ended up in the minority as one of the five parties in the coalition, the Centre Party, voted with the opposition.

Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, of the Labour Party, expressed his disapproval of the move.

“Budget agreements are made to be respected,” Stoltenberg told public broadcaster NRK.

“We need to sit down around the table with our partners and make sure this kind of situation doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Parliament estimated the tax cut would cost around 6.3 billion kroner.

Norway is Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer after Russia.

The country also has the highest number of electric vehicles per capita in the world.

Electric vehicles represented around 32% of the country’s car fleet in December 2025.

Diesel cars accounted for 31.8% of the fleet, compared to 23.9% for petrol cars and 12.6% for various hybrids.

 The Sun Malaysia