By KARA KENNEY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office says it will monitor fuel prices across the state to prevent price gouging.
On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Mike Braun announced a gas tax holiday for 30 days, which will result in savings to consumers of 17.2 cents per gallon.
I-Team 8 asked how many complaints the Indiana Attorney General’s Office received from consumers in 2025 and 2026 related to gas price gouging.
“We have zero complaints between that time period,” said Slayde Settle, director of media at the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, in an email to I-Team 8.
Report instances of excessive pricing to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office at 800-382-5516, or file a gasoline complaint online.
I-Team 8 spoke with Kyle Anderson, an economist at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He said it’s very difficult for consumers to tell at the pump if they’re getting the temporary tax savings or if they’re getting price gouged.
“Even if there were complaints, it’s very sort of unenforceable,” Anderson said. “How do you know that they’re not passing on the full savings? Gas prices bounce around every day. So, even if the gas tax is eliminated, yes, we’d expect prices to go down, but, you know, other political events, other, the price of a barrel of oil can change. All these things can happen, and the gas price of gas could go right back up the next day.”
Anderson said it’s a moving target for not only consumers, but also for the state to enforce.
“If one gas station decides not to pass along the discount, if consumers go somewhere else, then they’ll lose out on that business,” he said. “So it’s really about sort of an efficient market and people looking around getting the best price, and that’s what forces gas stations to lower their price. It’s competition, not threats from the governor.”
I-Team 8 reached out to the Attorney General’s Office and the Governor’s Office for more information on how the state plans to enforce compliance with the gas tax holiday. No response was received by Thursday afternoon.
Anderson said, “Data suggests that if you cut the gas tax by 17 cents, retailers are going to typically pass about one-half or two-thirds of that on to consumers, and I think the governor and the attorney general are trying to make sure that doesn’t happen, and they want all of that to go, but they’re sort of pushing back, and there’s no real way to monitor that, whether gas stations are really passing all that savings on to consumers.”
I-Team 8 reached out to the Indiana Food and Fuel Association. Matt Norris, the group’s public policy counsel, said the industry is ready to comply with the gas tax holiday.
“Absolutely, we’ve passed along the information that we’ve received from the Governor’s Office to our membership so they can suspend the 17.2 cents gasoline use tax and pass that savings along to the consumer,” Norris said.
Norris told I-Team 8 it’s in the retailers’ best interest to follow the law.
“We stand ready to work with the state in implementing this,” he said. “Consumers are going to chase the lowest gas price, and we stand ready to serve them when they do that.”
The attorney general cannot control the movement of gasoline prices, as crude oil and the majority of taxes are a result of federal and international factors, according to their website.
The attorney general can, however, challenge illegal pricing activities that include agreements between retailers to fix prices, deceptive sales acts, or excessive pricing during a state of emergency, according to their website.
Rokita said in a news release issued Wednesday, “With the suspension of Indiana’s gas tax for the next 30 days, my office will closely monitor fuel prices to guard against any potential price gouging. Hoosiers deserve the full relief intended by this emergency measure, and we will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that the removal of the tax translates into lower prices at the pump – and that consumers are not taken advantage of during this time. If a consumer suspects that a gas station in Indiana is still charging tax during the suspension, they should file a consumer complaint with our office.”
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/local-news/preventing-gas-price-gouging.
