Government cuts excise duty on petrol by Rs 8, diesel by Rs 6

Under pressure the government on Saturday cut excise duty on petrol by a record Rs 8 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 6 per litre to give relief to consumers battering under high fuel prices that has also pushed inflation to a multiyear highThe excise duty cut will translate into a reduction of Rs 95 a litre on petrol and Rs 7 a litre in diesel after taking into account its impact on other leviesPetrol price in Delhi will from Sunday cost Rs 9591 a litre as against Rs 10541 a litre currently while diesel will cost Rs 8967 a litre as opposed to Rs 9667 a litre nowAnnouncing the duty cut through tweets Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said the government will give Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levelsA 142kg LPG cylinder costs Rs 1003 in the national capital Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries the poor women who got free connections will get Rs 200 subsidy directly in their bank accounts and the effective price for them would be Rs 803 per 142kg cylinderThis excise duty cuts along with Rs 5 cut on petrol and Rs 10 reduction on diesel effected from November 4 2021 rolls back the Rs 13 per litre and Rs 16 per litre increase in taxes on petrol and diesel effected between March 2020 and May 2020 to avoid passing on to consumers the sharp fall in international oil prices at that timeThe excise duty hikes of 2020 had taken central taxes on petrol to their highest level of Rs 329 per litre and that on diesel to Rs 318 a litreAfter the latest excise cut the incidence of central tax on petrol will come down to Rs 199 a litre and that on diesel to Rs 158 per litreWe are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by Rs 8 per litre and on Diesel by Rs 6 per litre This will reduce the price of petrol by Rs 95 per litre and of Diesel by Rs 7 per litre Sitharaman tweeted It will have a revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh croreyear for the governmentShe exhorted all state governments to also cut local sales tax or VATI wish to exhort all state governments especially the states where reduction wasnt done during the last round November 2021 to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man she saidPost November 2021 reduction in excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 10 a litre 25 states and UTs had cut VAT to give further reprieve to consumers battered by recordhigh retail prices However states ruled by nonNDA parties like Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had not reduced VATPost that reduction stateowned oil firms kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged for a record 137day period during which international oil prices rose from USD 84 per barrel to a nearly 14year high of USD 140 They finally broke the hiatus with a Rs 10 per litre increase on both petrol and diesel in 16 days starting March 22 but again hit the freeze button after the last revision on April 6This despite the fact that oil prices ruled above USD 100 per barrel and the gap between cost and selling price was as high as Rs 13 a litre on petrol and Rs 24 on dieselHolding of prices despite rise in cost had led to lower earnings of fuel retailers in the JanuaryMarch quarterToday the world is passing through difficult times Even as the world is recovering from Covid19 pandemic the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods This is resulting in inflation amp economic distress in a lot of countries Sitharaman saidWPI or wholesale price inflation touched a record high of 1508 per cent in April on price rise across all items Retail inflation too rose to a near eightyear high of 779 per cent in that month remaining above the RBIs inflation target for the fourth straight monthEven during the pandemic our government set a paradigm of welfare especially with PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana This is now acknowledged and appreciated the world over she said referring to a scheme to provide free foodgrains to poor to help them tide over difficulties caused by a nationwide pandemic related lockdownDespite the challenging international situation weve ensured that there are no shortagesscarcity of essential goods Even a few developed countries couldnt escape some shortagesdisruptions We are committed to ensure that prices of essential items are kept under control she saidThe Finance Minister said despite rising fertilizer prices globally the government has protected farmers from such price hikes In addition to the fertilizer subsidy of Rs 105 lakh crore in the budget for current fiscal an additional amount of Rs 110 lakh crore is being provided to further cushion our farmersShe said the Prime Minister has specifically asked all arms of the government to work with sensitivity and give relief to the common man she said adding the steps announced on Saturday were in line with thatWe are also reducing the customs duty on raw materials amp intermediaries for plastic products where our import dependence is high This will result in reduction of cost of final products she saidSimilarly we are calibrating customs duty on raw materials amp intermediaries for iron amp steel to reduce their prices Import duty on some raw materials of steel will be reduced Export duty on some steel products will be leviedMeasures are being taken up to improve the availability of Cement and through better logistics to reduce the cost of cement she addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever