Diesel in Dar es Salaam is capped at TSh 3 978 a litre — about US$1.51 — effective 5 August 2026. Tanzania has the best-documented fuel prices in the region by a distance: EWURA publishes a full monthly series, and a separate cap for every one of more than 170 towns. That second table is the useful one, and almost nobody reads it.
The one-line version. Dar es Salaam to the Zambian border at Tunduma is 925 km on the TANZAM highway. EWURA caps diesel at TSh 3 978 at the port and TSh 4 128 at Tunduma. That TSh 150 difference is the road freight cost of a litre of diesel — published by the regulator itself. Fill at the coast.
Who sets the price, and how often
The Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) publishes cap prices monthly, effective from the first Wednesday. A cap is a maximum — a retailer may legally sell below it and EWURA states that legal action follows for anyone selling above it.
EWURA publishes three things every month, all as downloadable PDFs: retail caps for the three landing ports, wholesale caps for the same, and a retail cap for every named town in Tanzania Mainland. No other regulator in this cluster comes close.
| Port | Petrol | Diesel | Kerosene |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dar es Salaam | TSh 3 898 | TSh 3 978 | TSh 4 003 |
| Tanga | TSh 3 959 | TSh 4 039 | TSh 4 065 |
| Mtwara | TSh 3 990 | TSh 4 070 | TSh 4 096 |
The trend: 12 months from EWURA’s own notices
This series is read straight out of the regulator’s monthly PDFs. Each notice also states its own month-on-month change, which lets every row be checked against the row above it.
| Effective | Diesel cap, Dar es Salaam | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2025 | TSh 2,754 | — | EWURA PPR/2025-09/01 |
| 1 October 2025 | TSh 2,704 | -50 | EWURA PPR/2025-10/01 |
| 5 November 2025 | TSh 2,704 | no change | EWURA PPR/2025-11/01 (held unchanged) |
| 3 December 2025 | TSh 2,779 | +75 | EWURA PPR/2025-12/01 |
| 7 January 2026 | TSh 2,726 | -53 | EWURA January 2026 notice |
| 4 February 2026 | TSh 2,701 | -25 | EWURA February 2026 notice |
| 4 March 2026 | TSh 2,858 | +157 | EWURA March 2026 notice |
| 1 April 2026 | TSh 3,806 | +948 | EWURA April 2026 notice |
| 6 May 2026 | TSh 4,248 | +442 | EWURA PPR/2026-05/01 |
| 3 June 2026 | TSh 4,333 | +85 | DERIVED – EWURA’s June PDF is unavailable (404); reconstructed from the stated -151 TZS/l change in EWURA PPR/2026-07/01 |
| 1 July 2026 | TSh 4,182 | -151 | EWURA PPR/2026-07/01 |
| 5 August 2026 | TSh 3,978 | -204 | EWURA PPR/2026-08/01 |
What it shows
- Six months of almost nothing, then a near-vertical move. From September 2025 to February 2026 the cap moved in a band of TSh 78. Then March to June added TSh 1 632.
- The peak was June, at TSh 4 333 — 60% above the February low of TSh 2 701.
- Two months of falls since, TSh 151 then TSh 204, leaving the cap 8.2% below the peak and still 44% above where it was a year ago.
- EWURA held prices completely flat in November 2025 — the Dar es Salaam figures for October and November are identical to the shilling.
What drove it — and here the regulator says so in its own words
Most regulators publish a number. EWURA publishes an explanation, and it is unusually specific, which makes it the best-sourced account of the 2026 shock anywhere in the region.
| Force | What EWURA itself says | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| The global product price | EWURA dates the shock to a conflict that began on 28 February 2026 and names the mechanism: attacks on oil fields, storage and refineries, and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 20% of the world’s transported oil. Tanzania sources most of its product from that region. In May it reported Arab Gulf FOB prices up 71%. In July it reported the ceasefire and the reopening of the strait, and prices beginning to fall. | Nobody here |
| Shipping and premiums | A genuinely separate force and one EWURA calls out on its own: a shortage of cargo vessels raised shipping costs, and the strait closure raised premiums. This is freight cost inside the fuel price, at sea rather than on the road. | Nobody here |
| Government intervention | In June 2026 the government applied a subsidy of TSh 534.91 a litre on diesel, aimed explicitly at the transport and manufacturing sectors. Without it the June cap would have been materially higher than TSh 4 333. | The government |
🔴 The table nobody reads: what a litre costs along the TANZAM highway
EWURA sets a separate cap for every town, and the caps rise as you go inland. That is not an accident or a market quirk — it is the cost of trucking the fuel there, calculated by the regulator and published. Read down this table and you are reading the price of road freight in Tanzania.
| Town | Diesel cap | TSh vs the port | % | Road km from Dar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dar es Salaam | TSh 3 978 | — | — | — |
| Morogoro | TSh 4 018 | +40 | +1.0% | — |
| Iringa | TSh 4 062 | +84 | +2.1% | — |
| Mbeya | TSh 4 110 | +132 | +3.3% | 822 km |
| Tunduma | TSh 4 128 | +150 | +3.8% | 925 km |
| Kigoma | TSh 4 175 | +197 | +5.0% | — |
| Sumbawanga | TSh 4 181 | +203 | +5.1% | — |
TSh 150 a litre over 925 km — about TSh 162 per litre per 1 000 km. Two things follow. First, if you are running the TANZAM, fill at the coast: on a 925 km leg at 2.5 km per litre that is TSh 55 500 you keep. Second, and more interesting if you are the one hauling it — that TSh 150 is somebody’s revenue. Bulk fuel is freight, and it moves on exactly the corridors we model.
What it costs on the Tanzanian corridors we measure
22 of our 269 active corridors touch Tanzania, and the long ones are the Dar es Salaam gateway routes into Zambia and the DRC. Worked at 2.5 km per litre, which is a loaded interlink on reasonable road. A lighter rig does better and a hard pull does worse — the point is the shape, and your own figure slots straight in.
| Leg | km | Diesel, one way | in USD | Same fuel at the SA wholesale price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dar es Salaam – Mbeya | 822 | TSh 1 307 648 | US$495 | US$594 |
| Dar es Salaam – Tunduma (Zambian border) | 925 | TSh 1 471 383 | US$557 | US$668 |
| Dar es Salaam – Lusaka | 1 948 | TSh 3 099 180 | US$1 173 | US$1 407 |
Where diesel is cheaper across the border
Tunduma and Nakonde are the same border, and the two sides do not price the same way.
| Diesel | In USD | What kind of price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanzania, Dar es Salaam | TSh 3 978 | US$1.51 | EWURA cap, the port |
| Tanzania, Tunduma | TSh 4 128 | US$1.56 | EWURA cap, the border town |
| Zambia, anywhere | K26.86 | US$1.41 | uniform national pump price |
| South Africa, inland | R29.11 | US$1.81 | wholesale list — the pump is higher |
Southbound, cross into Zambia and fill there. Zambian diesel is about 10% below the Tanzanian cap at Tunduma and Zambia charges one price nationwide, so the saving does not evaporate as you drive. Northbound, fill in Zambia before you cross. The Zambian series is here, and our Tunduma crossing guide covers the post itself.
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Questions people ask
What is the diesel price in Tanzania now?
TSh 3 978 a litre in Dar es Salaam, the EWURA retail cap effective 5 August 2026. It is a maximum, not a fixed price. Caps are higher inland: TSh 4 110 at Mbeya and TSh 4 128 at Tunduma.
Who sets fuel prices in Tanzania?
EWURA, the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority. It publishes cap prices monthly, effective from the first Wednesday, for the three landing ports and for every town in Tanzania Mainland.
Why is diesel more expensive inland in Tanzania?
Because EWURA builds the road transport cost into the cap for each town. The gap between Dar es Salaam and Tunduma is TSh 150 a litre over 925 km — the published cost of getting the fuel there.
Is diesel cheaper in Tanzania or Zambia?
Zambia. About US$1.41 a litre against US$1.51 at Dar es Salaam and US$1.56 at Tunduma. Zambia also charges one price nationwide, so the advantage holds wherever you buy.
Why did Tanzanian fuel prices jump in April 2026?
EWURA attributes it to a conflict that began on 28 February 2026 and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes. Arab Gulf FOB prices rose 71%. Prices began easing in July after a ceasefire reopened the strait.
Is there a fuel subsidy in Tanzania?
There was in June 2026 — TSh 534.91 a litre on diesel, aimed at the transport and manufacturing sectors. Check the current month’s notice before assuming it still applies.
How we put this together
Every figure comes from EWURA’s own monthly public notices, read from the PDFs rather than from press coverage — Tanzania is the only country in this set where that was possible for the whole window. The one derived point, June 2026, is marked in the table and reconstructed from EWURA’s stated month-on-month change, a method we verified against a month where both figures exist. The town table is EWURA Table 3. Corridor distances are our own, measured on the road network rather than straight-line. Currency conversions use one dated quote for every post in this set — exchangerate-api.com, reading of 1 September 2026 — so the six countries can be compared with each other. Rates move; the litre price is the number to trust, not the dollar one.
Related: how to price a job out of Dar es Salaam · the Dar es Salaam port guide · Dar es Salaam to Lusaka · Zambian diesel prices · all fuel and freight cost coverage
