More expensive diesel fuel from January but no increase in fines

Cost increases in sight from January for motorists, including realignment of excise duties and third-party motor insurance, while fines will not increase. The decree Milleproroghe passed on Thursday 11 December by the government blocked the updating of amounts for road fines, leaving the value of fines unchanged, which, in the absence of intervention, would have risen by around +2% from next January.

Without this stop, the fine for parking would have risen from 42 to 43 euro, the fine for accessing the ZTL from 87 to 89 euro, exceeding the speed limit over 60 km/h from 845 to 862 euro, passing a red light from 167 to 170 euro, failure to wear a seatbelt from 83 to 85 euro, and using a mobile phone while driving from 250 to 255 euro, to give just a few examples.

This is, explains Codacons, the third consecutive freeze on updating the amounts of road fines: the first time, with the budget law for 2023, the government averted a 15.6% sting on fines due to the country's particular economic situation, an intervention that was then extended for 2025. The last increase for fines was in 2019, when the amounts rose by +2.2 %, and then fell by -0.2 % in 2021.

With the realignment of the excise taxes there will instead be an increase in the taxation on diesel of 4.05 euro cents per litre for diesel, which will bring into the state coffers an increase in revenue of EUR 552 million in 2026. According to the calculations of the consumers' association, also considering VAT at 22%, a 50-litre full tank of diesel will therefore cost from next January 2.47 euro more than today, with a higher outlay on an annual basis, assuming two full tanks per month, of +59.3 euro per car. At the same time, the association points out, there will be a reduction in excise duty on petrol, but for example in May, when excise duty increased by 1.5 euro cents, the price of diesel fuel at the pump immediately rose, while for green fuel, despite the 1.5 cent reduction in excise duty, the reductions were minimal.

Codacons also warns of possible increases further increases for third-party motor liability. One of the measures contained in the omnibus amendment to the budget bill, in fact, raises from 2.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent the rate for motor third-party liability relating to driver injury and roadside assistance risks for contracts concluded or renewed from 1 January 2026. A measure that is expected to bring EUR 115 million into the state coffers in the coming year. Car insurance prices, Codacons recalls, have already recorded significant increases: compared to 2022, the average cost of a policy has risen by a total of 17.5%, from an average of €353 in January 2022 (Ivass data) to €415 in the second quarter of 2025.