Excise Cut Day 2: Unleaded Down 25c, Premium at Full Pass-Through
Two days after the excise was halved, U91 has dropped 24.9c/L nationally — 95% of the cut. U98 premium is at 99% pass-through. Diesel is still lagging. State-by-state data inside.
Two days into the fuel excise cut, the picture is clearer — and more positive — than the Day 1 snapshot suggested.
The national average price of U91 unleaded has dropped 24.9 cents per litre since the day before the cut. That's 94.7% of the 26.3 cent excise reduction already at the pump. On a 65-litre tank, that's $16.19 in savings — closing in on the theoretical maximum of $17.10.
Premium fuels have gone even further. U98 has dropped 26.1 c/L — a 99.1% pass-through — essentially the full excise cut.
This is tracking well ahead of the 2022 precedent, where the ACCC found the bulk of the savings took a full week to appear.
Note: Our Day 1 report was a late-afternoon snapshot. With full end-of-day data, Day 1's actual pass-through was higher than initially reported (65% for U91, not 55%). All figures in this post use end-of-day averages for consistency, so Day 1 numbers here differ slightly from the original post. The methodology section at the bottom explains this in detail.
The national picture — Day 1 vs Day 2
| Fuel | Before cut (c/L) | Day 1 (c/L) | Day 2 (c/L) | Total drop | Pass-through |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U91 | 259.2 | 242.0 | 234.3 | 24.9 | 94.7% |
| E10 | 251.2 | 237.9 | 229.6 | 21.6 | 82.3% |
| U95 | 276.1 | 258.6 | 250.8 | 25.4 | 96.4% |
| U98 | 284.0 | 266.1 | 257.9 | 26.1 | 99.1% |
The trend is clear: pass-through is accelerating. U91 went from roughly two-thirds on Day 1 to nearly complete on Day 2. U95 and U98 are essentially done.
E10 is the laggard among unleaded fuels at 82.3%, but it started from a lower base price and still dropped 21.6 cents — which translates to the same dollar saving on a tank.
Diesel
Diesel is telling a split story.
Diesel Combined (station-count-weighted blend of standard and premium) has dropped from 322.4 c/L to 305.7 c/L — a fall of 16.7 c/L (63.5% pass-through). That's up from 46.8% at end of Day 1, but still well behind petrol.
The gap between the two diesel types has widened:
- Premium Diesel has dropped 21.9 c/L from 325.7 to 303.8 c/L — an 83.3% pass-through. This is approaching petrol territory.
- Standard Diesel has dropped only 8.1 c/L from 317.2 to 309.1 c/L — a 30.8% pass-through. It's barely moved.
The difference matters because most drivers can't choose between standard and premium diesel — your local station sells one or the other. If your servo stocks standard diesel, you're seeing less than a third of the excise cut so far.
As we noted on Day 1, rising global diesel wholesale costs are working against the excise relief. Diesel drivers should see more movement as competitive pressure builds through the week.
State by state
Here's how each state and territory is tracking on U91 unleaded, compared to the day before the cut (31 March):
| State | Before cut (c/L) | Day 1 (c/L) | Day 2 (c/L) | Total drop (c/L) | Pass-through |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA | 260.1 | 237.8 | 230.1 | 30.0 | 114.1% |
| QLD | 259.8 | 239.3 | 230.5 | 29.3 | 111.4% |
| VIC | 260.2 | 248.7 | 238.5 | 21.7 | 82.5% |
| WA | 255.5 | 249.1 | 236.9 | 18.6 | 70.7% |
| NT | 269.5 | 257.8 | 252.5 | 17.0 | 64.6% |
| ACT | 234.8 | 239.7 | 227.3 | 7.5 | 28.5% |
| NSW | 240.8 | 235.9 | 233.7 | 7.1 | 27.0% |
| TAS | 233.6 | 233.8 | 230.8 | 2.8 | 10.6% |
The overachievers
South Australia and Queensland have exceeded 100% pass-through — prices have dropped more than the excise cut. That's not magic: both states were near the top of their price cycles when the cut landed on 1 April. The natural cycle decline has stacked on top of the excise cut, delivering a combined windfall to drivers. SA's 30.0 cent drop means drivers there are paying $19.50 less on a 65-litre tank compared to two days ago.
The movers
Victoria has made the biggest Day 1-to-Day 2 improvement, dropping a further 10.2 c/L overnight to reach 82.5% pass-through. Western Australia jumped from 24% to 70.7% — a massive overnight correction. WA's FuelWatch system locks in prices at 2:30pm AWST the day before, so Day 1's posted prices were set before the cut. Day 2 is the first full FuelWatch cycle reflecting the new excise rate.
Northern Territory is at 64.6%, up from about 34% on Day 1 — solid progress for a market with higher baseline costs and less competitive pressure than the capital cities.
Still catching up
NSW and Tasmania had the lowest pre-cut prices (240.8 and 233.6 c/L respectively), sitting near the bottom of their price cycles. There was less room for the excise cut to pull prices down — the natural cycle was already doing some of that work. NSW at 27% and TAS at 10.6% should improve as the next price cycle resets.
ACT is showing a 7.5 c/L drop on Day 2 after an anomalous increase on Day 1. With only around 30 stations, the ACT is volatile in small samples — this figure will stabilise.
What happens next
The trajectory is encouraging. At the current rate:
- Petrol (U91, U95, U98) should reach or exceed full pass-through nationally within the next day or two — well ahead of the 2022 one-week timeline.
- E10 should follow petrol within a few more days.
- Diesel is the one to watch. If global wholesale costs stabilise, the excise cut should start biting more visibly for diesel. But if wholesale costs keep climbing, diesel drivers may continue to see a smaller benefit than petrol drivers.
The ACCC is watching. The maximum penalty for price gouging has been doubled to $100 million, and investigations into Ampol, BP, Mobil Oil, and Viva Energy are ongoing.
We'll keep tracking this daily:
- Day 3 (3 April) — early trend check
- Day 7 (7 April) — the one-week picture
- Day 14 (14 April) — two-week progress report
- Day 30 (1 May) — the monthly report card
In the meantime, use BowserBuddy to find the cheapest fuel near you. Even with the excise cut doing most of the work, there's still a 20+ cent spread between the cheapest and dearest station in most areas.
How we calculated this
This analysis uses BowserBuddy's own price tracking data across all eight states and territories. We compute a station-count-weighted daily average from price history records, with each state's data bucketed into local calendar dates using its IANA timezone (e.g. Australia/Sydney for NSW, Australia/Perth for WA).
Comparison period: All figures are compared to March 31 (the last full day before the cut took effect). This gives the most direct measure of the excise cut's cumulative impact. Day 1 (April 1) figures are also shown to illustrate the daily progression.
End-of-day averages: Unlike our Day 1 report, which was a late-afternoon snapshot, this analysis uses full end-of-day averages. More stations reported updated prices after the Day 1 post was published, which means the actual Day 1 pass-through was higher than initially reported. All dates in this post use the same end-of-day methodology for consistency. The March 31 baseline is essentially unchanged from the Day 1 report.
Pass-through percentage: Calculated as the price drop divided by 26.3 c/L (the ex-GST excise cut). Pass-through above 100% is possible when the excise cut coincides with a natural price cycle decline.
What's excluded: Closed stations, out-of-stock prices, suspected reporting errors, and prices outside reasonable bounds are all filtered before averaging. For full details on our data quality approach, see the Data Transparency section on our prices dashboard.
Diesel Combined is a station-count-weighted blend of standard Diesel and Premium Diesel — reflecting the fact that most stations sell one or the other, and drivers take what's available.
Sample sizes: Today's national averages are based on approximately 29,100 U91 price reports and 42,600 diesel price reports across all eight states and territories.