Biofuel quota (Law on blending obligation)
Updated: 08.02.2019
Author: Stijn Anciaux
Companies that sell petrol E5 or E10 or diesel oil need to satisfy a defined volume of sustainable biofuels within one calendar year (Art. 7 §1 in conjunction with Art. 4 and 5 Law on blending obligation).
Eligible technologies
Subject to the obligation are first- and second-generation biofuels. The blending of biofuels has to meet the requirements of the Belgian standards NBN EN 590 for diesel products and NBN EN 228 for petrol products (Art. 2 Law on blending obligation).
| Biofuels | Considered as biofuels are fuels registered in Annex III 2009/28/EC and produced in line with the sustainability criteria enshrined in the Royal Decree of 16 November 2011 (Art. 2 10° in conjunction with Art. 4 Law on blending obligation). The law differentiates between three categories of biofuels depending on the status of recognition. Biofuels under category A are regulated both by European and Belgian norms, biofuels under category B and C are recognised only by national regulation (Art. 5 1°-3° Law on blending obligation). |
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Amount
| Amount of quota and period of application | The providers of petrol E5 or E10 or diesel fuels have to ensure that biofuels make up a certain volume of the company’s total annual sale of fuel. The obligation must be fulfilled by the end of each calendar year. The following volumes apply (Art. 7 in conjunction with Art. 2 7°-9° Law on blending obligation): - E5: 5% v/v
- E10: 10% v/v
- Diesel: 7% v/v
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| Fees and penalty charges | If a provider fails to fulfil the quota he shall pay a fine amounting to € 900 per 1,000 litres at 15°C of biofuels that was not blended with the annual amount of petrol or diesel products sold (Art. 14 §2 Law on blending obligation). |
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Addressees
The quota obligation applies to all registered oil companies offering petrol or diesel products for consumption. A registered company can be each natural or moral person who produces, buys, imports, refines, transforms, uses, distributes, sells, delivers or transports petrol or diesel products and offers them for consumption (Art. 2 and 4 Loi du 22 juillet 2009).
Procedure
Process flow | The registered companies are obliged to communicate to the Department for Energy at Federal Ministry of the Economy the volumes of sold E5, E10 and diesel fuel. The figures shall be communicated at the latest until the last workday of the following month (Art. 10 Law on blending obligation). |
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Competent authority | The Department for Energy at Federal Ministry of the Economy in coordination with the Tax and Customs office of the Ministry of Finance (Art. 11 §1 Law on blending obligation) |
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Distribution of costs
| Consumers | The costs are borne by the consumers. |
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| Distribution mechanism | The obliged companies pass on the costs arising from the quota obligation to the consumers by adding a surcharge to their fuel. |
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Belgium
