Connecticut Diesel Tax Will Drop Slightly on July 1

Truckers buying fuel in Connecticut will get a bit of a break starting July 1, when the state tax on diesel drops 0.4 cents per gallon.

On July 1, the tax will fall from 54.9 cents to 54.5 cents a gallon, said Sarah Kaufmann, spokeswoman for the Connecticut State Tax Department.

Under state law, Connecticut occasionally adjusts its fuel tax, which is based on a formula that includes the revenue from its gross receipts tax on fuel and the wholesale price of fuel in the previous fiscal year, said Mike Riley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut.

“It’s going down four-tenths of a cent, but we’re still the highest in the country,” Riley said.

The next-highest diesel taxes are in Pennsylvania, which just added a wholesale sales tax to fuel, putting the per-gallon tax on diesel there at 51 cents per gallon; California follows, as the levy is 45.3 cents there.

Riley said that Connecticut is planning to launch a review of its entire tax code next year and that the trucking industry wants to see the state include fuel taxes in that review.