Belgium Raises Heating Oil Levy to Rescue Promaz Fund

Heating oil in Belgium will become one euro cent more expensive per litre from 1 October, under a ministerial decree issued by federal Energy Minister Mathieu Bihet and Work Minister David Clarinval, both of the French-speaking liberal party MR. The extra revenue — a five-fold increase of the so-called solidarity contribution, from 0.2 euro cent to 1 euro cent per litre — is earmarked for Promaz, the heating-oil soil-remediation fund that has struggled with chronic underfunding for years.

According to VRT NWS, the decision is intended to unblock millions of euros in refunds that had been frozen because the fund lacked the money to pay them. The increase applies to heating oil, known locally as mazout.

A Fund Stretched to Its Limits

Promaz financially and operationally assists homeowners when a leaking oil tank or pipe contaminates the soil, a repair that commonly costs between 20,000 and 70,000 euro. The fund had promised to reimburse up to 200,000 euro per leak.

But it has been short of cash almost from the start. As of late November 2025, more than 5 million euro in refunds — covering 117 accepted files — was frozen, with roughly 1,500 further applications still awaiting verification, according to VRT NWS reporting. About 300 files had already been paid, totalling some 10 million euro.

The original solidarity contribution of 0.2 euro cent per litre took effect quietly in January 2026 — but it was never enough. By the end of March, Promaz was publicly asking the federal government to quintuple the levy to 1 euro cent per litre, warning that the lower rate could only guarantee the fund’s operation for the coming years, not for its full 20-year lifespan. That request is documented in VRT NWS coverage from 1 April 2026.

From Resistance to Decree

The federal government initially pushed back. In March, a spokesman for Minister Bihet, Maxim Laporte, told VRT that it was “essential not to place a new additional burden on the per-litre price of heating oil, certainly not in the current context,” prioritising the existing agreement while monitoring the fund’s finances.

That stance has since shifted. Following consultation with the regions — which had already approved the contribution in late 2025 — the federal decree was signed by Bihet and Clarinval, raising the rate from 1 October.

“The past months we followed Promaz’s financial situation closely,” Bihet said. “The fund is financed via a contribution per litre of heating oil. However, heating-oil consumption will fall faster in the coming years than the fund’s use of resources. We must therefore ensure today that Promaz has sufficient resources.”

He added that the goal is “very concrete: help citizens confronted with sometimes particularly high costs for remediating contaminated soil.”

What It Means for Households

In practice, the increase is modest at the level of a single delivery but meaningful for the fund’s finances. The solidarity contribution rises from about 4 euro to roughly 20 euro on a 2,000-litre tank. The change comes on top of an already elevated price: heating oil’s maximum price now stands at 1.5539 euro per litre for orders of 2,000 litres or more, and 1.5944 euro per litre below that threshold. The federal government also raised excise duties on heating oil over the summer.

Roughly 20 percent of Belgian households heat with oil. The practice is most common in Wallonia (about 36 percent), followed by Flanders (13 percent) and Brussels (11 percent).

Promaz Welcomes ‘Clarity’

Promaz said the funding certainty would allow it to draw up budgets and remediation planning for the years ahead and to work through the backlog of files. “We understand that people who have been waiting for a while mainly want to know when something concrete will happen,” the fund said. “We ask them for a little more patience. But today we can say: there is clarity about the financing and we can move forward.”

The fund cautioned, however, that revenue from the higher contribution is not expected until around March 2027, meaning reimbursements will continue to lag in the short term.

Federal MP Bert Wollants of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, who has followed the file closely, welcomed the decision. “With this decision we give those people new perspective, that is a sensible decision,” he said.

A Structural Challenge Remains

The increase buys Promaz breathing room, but it does not resolve the fund’s underlying arithmetic. It was designed under a 2021 framework in which the oil sector and authorities agreed to finance it through a transfer of surpluses from Bofas, the service-station soil fund, plus a levy of up to 0.01 euro per litre, with a ceiling budget of up to 512 million euro over 20 years and an automatic stop once that amount is reached, as set out by the industry federation Energia.

As Belgium’s energy transition reduces heating-oil consumption, the levy base shrinks while remediation obligations persist — a mismatch the ministers acknowledged in opting for the higher rate. Whether the fund can meet its long-term promises, or will require further adjustment, is the question that will define the next phase of a file that has left many households waiting for years.