Tax Facts – Fuel Schemes

Fuel schemes provide credits and grants to reduce the costs of some fuels or provide a benefit to encourage recycling of waste oils. There are various types of schemes:

• Fuel tax credits for business – provides a credit for the excise or customs duty included in the price of fuel used for business activities, in machinery, plant, equipment and heavy vehicles.
• Fuel tax credits – domestic electricity generation and non-profit emergency vessels or vehicles
• Cleaner fuels grants scheme – encourages making or importing fuels that have a lesser impact on the environment. Eligible cleaner fuels include biodiesel and renewable diesel, as well as low or ultra-low sulphur conventional fuels like low sulphur premium unleaded petrol (PULP) and ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD). Major changes to this scheme are proposed to take effect from 1 July 2015, at the time of publication (October 2014) these changes had not become law.
• Product stewardship for oil (PSO) program – supports recycling oil for environmental sustainability. This includes recycling used oil and using recycled oil.

The former Energy grants credits scheme that applied to alternative fuels and diesel no longer operates for new purchases of fuel.