Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme (Notice 2001)

We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out about the Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme for retailers of fuel and areas eligible for the relief. Get emails about this page Print this page The Rural Fuel Duty Relief gives support to motorists by compensating fuel retailers in some rural areas with high road fuel prices. Other fuel users of full duty petrol and diesel can also claim this relief. The rural areas were chosen because, before the scheme was introduced: The rebate gives a 5 pence per litre reduction to fuel retailers in the specified rural areas on the standard UK rate of excise duty for unleaded petrol and for diesel sold for use other than in excepted vehicles. A rebate cannot be claimed for rebated fuel sold for excepted machine use (for example, boats and agricultural vehicles). Fuel retailers must begin passing on the 5 pence per litre reduction 60 days after registration at the latest. This is to help fuel users in remote areas where the cost of petrol and diesel is often higher. From 1 April 2015 changes were made to extend the relief to more specified rural areas. HMRC can consider late claims, where there is reasonable cause. From 1 April 2022 changes were made to extend the relief to sales of fully taxed fuel used for machines no longer entitled to use rebated fuels. This notice contains information: Retailers of unleaded petrol and fully duty-paid diesel sold as fuel within the areas shown in the paragraph about how the relief scheme works. The UK laws that are covered in this notice are: You can claim relief if you are a retailer of fuel (unleaded petrol and fully duty-paid diesel) in the specified areas. You are not eligible to register if you buy fuel in bulk for example, for your own business use. You can register with HMRC to claim 5 pence per litre relief on fuel you purchase if you are a retailer of qualifying fuel within the areas of the: The relief is only allowed for fully taxed fuel and retailers in the specified areas and they only need to give the price reduction and claim the relief where fuel has been used other than for an excepted machine. The start date on the scheme is the date of approval on your registration form. You can only start to make a claim when you are registered. Retrospective claims cannot be made for any period. Claims must be made on a monthly basis. You have 60 days following your registration to reduce the cost of every litre of fully taxed fuel sold by the equivalent amount of the relief claimed. This is the 60-day period after we confirm you have registered as a retailer and are not required to pass on the relief. This introductory period is designed to help you avoid initial cash flow problems. By law, retailers must pass on the full relief to consumers once this introductory 60-day period has come to an end. You can begin to pass on the relief to consumers before the 60 days are over, if you want to. The 60-day period makes sure customers in the eligible areas benefit from the reduction in fuel duty. To register you need to complete a registration to claim Fuel Duty relief . A separate registration is needed for each retail premises. We will write to confirm that you are registered as a qualified claimant. You must also tell us if, at some later date, you want to do any of the following: You can do this by emailing morc.exciseenquiries@hmrc.gov.uk . To claim relief you must: You will need to give the following details of the fuel you have bought and which you are claiming relief for: The following are calculations to work out the amount you can claim of volume in litres