Supreme Decree No. 5716 of 18 September 2026 changes the way diesel is priced in Bolivia. Until now the fuel had a fixed final price of Bs 9.80 per litre, recorded in Supreme Decree No. 5516, with a separate regime for industry and large consumers since August. The new decree sets a single regulated final price of Bs 17.95 per litre, VAT included, and ties it to import parity, meaning the cost of bringing the fuel into the country. It also repeals Supreme Decrees No. 5676 and No. 5698, issued in August and September this year.
For those who paid Bs 9.80, the increase is 83%. A litre had cost Bs 3.72 from 2005 until December 2025. What changes business planning, however, is less the starting figure than the mechanism. The price is no longer a number fixed by decree but the result of a published formula that will move with the international price of diesel and with the official exchange rate. For transport, agribusiness, mining and industry, diesel becomes a variable cost and should be budgeted as one.
How the price is calculated
Article 3 defines the price as the sum of seven components, each in dollars per litre. The first is the cost of the imported product, which combines a reference price with the premium agreed in import contracts. The reference price is the Houston quotation for ULSD Colonial 62 diesel published by Argus Media on the day before the calculation. To that are added international and domestic transport, storage, inspection, financing costs, customs duties and other logistics costs. The components are calculated net of VAT, to four decimal places and on the average of available data, and the result is converted into bolivianos at the official exchange rate of the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) in force on the calculation date. VAT is added at the point of sale and the final price is stated to two decimal places.
Article 6 sets out what stays the same. The distribution margins fixed by Supreme Decree No. 5516 are unchanged, as are VAT and the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons and Derivatives (IEHD). The difference between the price that chain would produce and the new regulated price goes to the state oil company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), with a share going to the refineries to cover crude processing, under rules to be issued by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy. For service stations, margins per litre remain the same.
The 5% band
To avoid constant adjustments, Article 4 introduces a band. The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), as regulator, calculates the reference price on every business day and compares it with the average Argus Media quotation. As long as the difference stays between minus 5% and plus 5%, the current reference price is left unchanged. If the difference exceeds that range in either direction, the published quotation becomes the new reference price and applies from the following day. Each time that happens, the ANH may also review the premium and the other costs.
The band is worth reading carefully. It governs how often the reference price is adjusted, but it does not cap how far the final price can move. Once the threshold is crossed, the adjustment passes on the full difference, and the final price can also move with the other components or the exchange rate. The decree asks the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy to issue rules for calculating the band and the cost structure for the first calculation, both within five business days of publication, and the band applies once those rules are published. The regulations will also need to specify the averaging period and whether a change in the exchange rate alone triggers a new calculation, two points the decree does not address. At the end of September, the prices published by the ANH still stood at Bs 17.95.
Obligations for importers
The decree places new obligations on anyone importing diesel under ANH authorisation, whether public or private. They must take part each month in the Production and Demand Committee (PRODE), in person or online, and send the ANH every Monday the cost structure of their imports over the previous seven days, or whenever the regulator asks. That information is likely to feed the updating of the formula's components, and it means a weekly reporting routine for the private importers authorised under Supreme Decree No. 5644. The National Chamber of Commerce has asked the regulator to publish the cost structure behind the price every week and to apply the band as quickly on the way down as on the way up.
Imported gasoline and flex-fuel vehicles
The final provisions add two measures that go beyond diesel. The first defers to 0% until 31 December 2027 the tariff on imports of unleaded motor gasoline, at every octane grade, making imports of that fuel cheaper. The second extends to 30 April 2030 the tax incentive for importing flex-fuel vehicles or vehicles designed to run on hydrated alcohol. New vehicles in these categories pay a 0% tariff and 0% Specific Consumption Tax (ICE), against a 10% tariff and between 5% and 15% ICE for other vehicles under the same headings. The Ministry and the ANH have 30 calendar days to issue technical rules allowing service stations to sell fuel to these vehicles, a step that matters to vehicle importers and ethanol producers alike.
What companies should do
For companies that use diesel in volume, the change calls for practical adjustments. Budgets for 2027 should be built on scenarios that combine the Houston quotation and the official exchange rate rather than on a fixed price. Haulage, supply and construction contracts with clauses tied to the fuel price deserve a review, so that they refer to the regulated price published by the ANH rather than to a specific figure. VAT-registered companies should also bear in mind that the Bs 17.95 includes VAT, which can be claimed as input credit under the usual conditions.
The decree is part of a broader timetable. The policy memorandum annexed to Law No. 1765, which approved the programme with the International Monetary Fund, provides for domestic fuel prices to reach cost recovery from January 2027. With Decree 5716, diesel gets there ahead of that date, while regular gasoline keeps its fixed price until December. For businesses operating in Bolivia, the reference points from now on are the ANH's published prices and the rules on the band.
