The cost of waiting: regulatory latency at Mexico's fuel stations

Bajío Ventures · April 2026 · “One standard” series, 1 of 4

In conversations with fuel station operators, one concept comes up again and again: regulatory latency. It is the time between the moment a station is ready to operate, comply or change something, and the moment the authority rules. Every fuel station lives with it, and almost nobody measures it.

Delay is not free

A month of waiting carries three costs:

• Idle capital. The works are finished, the tanks installed and the loan accruing interest, but the station is not selling.
• Margin that never comes back. A litre not sold this month is not sold later; the customer fills up somewhere else.
• Uncertainty. When the criterion is unclear, the operator pays for advice, repeats filings or takes on the risk of a fine.

As an illustrative order of magnitude: a new station with an investment of MXN 25–35 million can lose on the order of MXN 0.7–1 million for every month of waiting, adding financing cost and unsold margin. The exact figure depends on each case, but the conclusion does not change: regulatory delay is one more operating cost, just like energy or payroll.

Why it weighs more now

Fuels regulation is in the middle of a transition. In January 2026 the technical annexes for volumetric controls were renumbered (the former Annex 30 is now Annex 21), and the CNE has replaced the CRE as regulator. The fuel quality standard and several equipment standards are under review, and since the 2025 Miscellaneous Tax Resolution, companies that consume 75,714 litres or more per month for their own use must also keep volumetric controls. Each transition opens an adjustment period in which criteria are not yet settled, and that is where latency grows.

On the northern border the effect is doubled. The IEPS excise tax incentive is adjusted every week to compete with US prices, so margins are already tight. Every month of delay passes through to price or margin, and that erodes competitiveness.

What is not measured is not improved

Today there is no public record of how long each filing takes for a fuel station, or of what that wait costs. In other areas, Mexico already has methodologies for costing administrative procedures, such as CONAMER’s Standard Cost Model. Applying them to the fuels sector would make it possible to:

1. Identify the procedures and authorities with the longest backlogs.
2. Translate waiting times into pesos and regional competitiveness.
3. Give state governments a concrete number they can improve.

At Bajío Ventures we propose building a regulatory latency index for the fuels sector, starting with a pilot region.

Do you operate fuel stations? How long did you wait for your last permit or modification? We want to hear your case.

In this series: 1. The cost of waiting · 2. One requirement, one standard · 3. A single file per station · 4. We need a common table (coming soon)

This article is for information only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. RMF provisions, standards under review and tax incentives change frequently; each case requires specific review. The latency cost figures are illustrative.

Sources: SAT, volumetric controls for self-consumption · Verifigas, RMF 2026: from Annex 30 to Annex 21 (annexes published in the DOF on 13 Jan 2026) · DOF, decree amending the border-region tax incentives, 31 Dec 2025 · CONAMER, application of the standard cost methodology

Bajío Ventures — a Mexican energy infrastructure investment group based in Guanajuato: capital, a data platform on the regional industrial base, and a German industrial channel with its own advisory presence in Berlin.