Excise mop-up surges 48% in first four months of fisca
The government’s collections from levy of excise duty on petroleum products have jumped 48% in the first four months of the current fiscal year, with the incremental mop-up being 3-times of the repayment liability of legacy oil bonds in the full fiscal, official data showed.
Data available from the Controller General of Accounts in the Union ministry of finance showed excise duty collections during April-july 2021 surging to over ₹1 lakh crore, from ₹67,895 crore mop-up in the same period of the previous fiscal.
After the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, excise duty is levied only on petrol, diesel, ATF and natural gas. Barring these products, all other goods and services are under the GST regime.
The incremental collections of ₹32,492 crore in the first four months of the fiscal year 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022) is three-times the ₹10,000 crore liability that the government has in the full year towards repayment of oil bonds that were issued by the previous
Congress-led UPA government to subsidise fuel.
Bulk of excise duty collection is from the levy on petrol and diesel and with sales picking up with a rebounding economy, the incremental collections in the current year may be over ₹1 lakh crore when compared with the previous year, industry sources said.
In all, the UPA government had issued ₹1.34 lakh crore worth of bonds (equivalent to a sovereign commitment to pay in future) to state-owned oil companies to compensate them for selling fuel such as cooking gas LPG, kerosene and diesel at rates below cost.
Of this, ₹10,000 crore is to be repaid in the current cal, according to the fina ministry.
First, finance minister mala Sitharaman and the minister Hardeep Singh had blamed the oil bonds limiting fiscal space to relief to people from fuel pr trading at near record high
Finance minister Sithara had last month ruled out a in excise duty on petrol and sel to ease prices, saying ments in lieu of past subsid fuel pose limitations. She the total liability that the government has to servic ₹1.3 lakh crore.