The energy tax on gasoline and diesel will drop by 14 euro cents a liter for three months through the end of the year. This reduction lowers the total tax burden by about 17 cents per liter when including value added tax. A state set cap on retail pump prices linked to oil market movements will follow at a later stage to stabilize consumer costs.

The measures form part of a €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) relief package to ease record fuel costs. This current tax cut matches a two month program introduced earlier this year. Germany's government is basing the future price cap model on existing systems used in Belgium and Luxembourg.