The central government in New Delhi, on Tuesday, announced that it will be hiking the excise duty of petrol and diesel by Rs. 13 per liter and Rs. 10 per liter respectively. The move is looked at increasing revenue for the state during the COVID-19 crisis.
With hiking the excise duty on petrol and diesel, the government is expecting to garner over 1.6 lakh crore of additional revenue. This follows a similar pattern the government has incorporated for a while i.e. to not pass on the benefit of decline in international crude oil prices to the customer which will, in turn, boost the revenue of the government in the current crisis.
However, the retail prices in the petrol bunks will not be affected by the changes in tax. The industry officials clarified that the state-owned oil firms will have to adjust the tax changes against the recent fall in oil prices. The central board of indirect taxes and customs issued a notification saying that the special additional excise duty on petrol has been hiked Rs. 2 per liter and the road cess for the same has been hike by Rs. 8 per liter.
In the case of diesel, the road cess has been hiked by Rs. 8 per liter and the special additional excise duty has been raised by Rs. 5 per liter. The total excise duty on petrol and diesel has risen to Rs. 31.83 and Rs. 32.98 respectively. When the Modi government assumed office, the tax on petrol was Rs. 9.48 per liter and tax on diesel were Rs. 3.56 per liter.
Retail Prices not revised since March 16
Since March, despite the continuous fall in international crude oil prices, this is the second time the government has hiked the excise duty in order to spike up its revenues. By raising the excise duty by Rs. 3 on petrol and diesel, the government is believed to have got Rs. 39,000 crore in revenues.
The retail price of petrol and diesel have not been revised since the 16th of March when the International crude prices slump to a two-decade low. In Delhi, petrol costs Rs. 71.26 per liter and diesel cost Rs. 69.39 per liter.
Source: Free Press Journal
