Professional diesel

Since 2009, people have been eligible to reclaim special excise duties on diesel under certain conditions. These special excise duties are called “professional diesel.

The Belgian state has set up a cliquet system to implement excise duty increases. Every year, they set the maximum amount of excise duty they want to increase. The excise duty on diesel is increased every time the maximum price will fall until the total annual amount is reached. This will increase the proportion of professional diesel every year. Professional users can therefore claim this back on a monthly basis.

From 01 January 2023, you will be able to recover €0.0604384/litre. This is an increase against the previous 2 years (€0.2269716/l in 2022 and €0.2476158/l in 2021).

Diesel emissions

Diesel has not had the best reputation in recent years. With an older diesel car, you are already banned from entering most major cities. But is diesel really that harmful? We cannot deny that the old diesel had more polluting emissions. But the new diesel engines, which comply with the EURO 6 standard, are no longer so polluting at all. This is because this standard ensures that manufacturers have to meet very strict requirements, which means that the polluting emissions of these diesel cars are already a lot less.

There is also the additional addition to newer diesel cars of AdBlue. This product ensures that they eliminate nitrogen oxides almost completely or even in some engines completely. Which makes the diesel car not so polluting at all! You can find out more about it here. Indeed, and many people do not know this, the air quality coming out of the exhaust on such cars is mostly cleaner than the air they take in!

Who is eligible

Anyone with a vehicle over 7.5 tonnes, taxis and buses are eligible.
Even if you are not a carrier, and use the truck to transport your own goods.

How to apply?

The first step is to register.

If you have not already done so in the past, you must first register and apply for a licence. This is called the “energy products and electricity licence”.

• To do this, go on the internet to the website of the Federal Public Service Finance
• On this page you can choose “companies”
• At “customs and excise”, choose “read more”.
• Then under “excise duties” again choose “read more
• Then under “application forms” again choose “read more
• There you go to “energy products and electricity” and you can download the application form

In the “Energy products and electricity” document, you then enter the following:

• Name, address, telephone number and your company number
• The nature of the application, here you select new licence ( tick )
• The nature of your activity, here you look at the end user ( tick )
• If you refuel at several filling stations, enter your own address here, otherwise the address where you always refuel.
• For the product code, enter “22”.
• You enter your estimated consumption, this is on an annual basis
• Then fill in the address of the accounts
• You add the date and signature of the company’s representative.
• You then add all the registration certificates of the vehicles eligible to claim the refund.

You then send this form along with the registration certificates of your trucks to the regional Customs and Excise Directorate under which you fall:

• Regio Antwerp: Ellermanstraat 21, 2060 Antwerp– Email
• Regio Brussels: Administratief Centrum Kruidtuin – Finance Tower, Kruidtuinlaan 50 – Bus 320, 1000 Brussels – Email
• Regio Gent: R.A.C. Ter Plaeten, Sint-Lievenslaan 27, 9000 Gent – Email
• Regio Hasselt: Voortstraat 43 – Bus 70, 3500 Hasselt – Email
• Regio Leuven: Philipssite 3A bus 4, 3001 Leuven – Email

For the full Professional Diesel manual, download the document below