President Claudia Sheinbaum renewed a six-month voluntary price-control agreement with fuel retailers on 31 August 2026, capping regular gasoline at 24 pesos per liter and diesel at 27 pesos per liter. The arrangement uses a fiscal stimulus from reduced special tax collection to keep domestic prices stable despite external oil market pressures.
Price support mechanism
Without the government’s fiscal stimulus, regular gasoline would cost 27.20 pesos per liter, a premium of 13.3 percent above the agreed cap. Diesel would reach 30.07 pesos per liter, standing 11.4 percent above its controlled price. The average prices with fiscal stimulus stood at 25.61 pesos per liter for regular gasoline and 27.36 pesos per liter for diesel.
Fuel retailers faced margin adjustments of 1.61 pesos per liter on regular gasoline and 0.36 pesos per liter on diesel as part of the arrangement. Édgar Amador Zamora, the finance minister, said fuel prices in Mexico remain stable despite external shocks from Middle East conflicts, distinguishing the country from other economies that received inflationary pressure from rising oil costs.
Tax revenue and outlook
The special tax on gasoline and diesel collected 246.871 billion pesos between January and July, marking a 2.1 percent year-on-year real decline. July alone generated 26.982 billion pesos in IEPS revenue. Mauricio Jesús González Puente, an energy economist and fuel sector representative, said the mechanism works through a tripartite scheme involving the federal government, fuel retailers, and marketers and importers, with the government reducing IEPS collection and holding the possibility of temporarily eliminating the tax if international oil prices rise substantially.
