Here's a fun one for your Thursday. As of midnight August 3, the federal government's fuel excise relief has officially ended — and that means 16 cents per litre is about to reappear on your next trip to the bowser.

If you've been following the fuel price rollercoaster this year, you'll know the excise cut kicked in back in March when the Strait of Hormuz crisis sent diesel prices through the roof (Melbourne diesel jumped 78% in 21 days — not a typo). The government slashed 32 cents off every litre to cushion the blow, then halved that to 16 cents in July. Now? Zero. The relief tap is off.

What's Actually Happening at the Pump?

The excise returned to its normal rate at midnight on August 3, but don't expect to see the jump tomorrow — it typically takes about 10 days for wholesale price changes to filter through to your local servo. That puts us around August 13-14 for the full impact.

According to RACQ's principal economist Ian Jeffreys, we're looking at roughly $2.20 a litre for unleaded and $2.60 for diesel once the excise fully kicks back in. And that's before factoring in global oil prices, which have crept up from about $US85 to $US90 a barrel in the past fortnight thanks to renewed tension in the Middle East.

Jeffreys' advice? "Fill up as soon as possible."

Why It's a Surcharge — Just a Government One

We spend a lot of time here talking about card surcharges (and yes, 1 October is still coming — 56 days and counting). But the fuel excise is arguably the original surcharge: a government levy baked into every litre you pump, currently sitting at about 50 cents per litre in total. The 16 cents that just came back is only the portion that was temporarily removed. The rest never left.

So while we're all counting down the days until tap-and-go stops costing extra, here's another surcharge quietly sliding back onto your receipt — this one printed by the ATO.

The Regional Pain

Spare a thought for anyone outside the capital cities. As one Batemans Bay driver told the ABC, regional communities don't have public transport as a fallback — you either drive or you don't move. She's been commuting three and a half hours to Sydney each week for study and has already clocked over $1,000 in fuel costs with the excise cut in place.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has urged motorists not to stockpile fuel (apparently people are considering it), and the ACCC is watching for price gouging. But for most Australians, the only real move is to fill up now and brace.

Happy driving. G