Govt rules out cutting taxes on petrol, diesel
New Delhi: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday ruled out cutting taxes on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of rising oil prices that has led to petrol rates increasing by over `6 per litre since July beginning. Stateowned oil firms in June dumped the practice of revising rates on 1st & 16th of every month and adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost. Full report on Page 15
New Delhi, Aug. 30: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday ruled out cutting taxes on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of rising international oil prices that has led to petrol rates increasing by over `6 per litre since the beginning of July.
State-owned oil companies in June dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost. Rates during the first fortnight dropped but have since July 3 been on the rise.
While petrol prices have increased by `6.08 to reach `69.12 a litre in Delhi, the highest since August 2014, diesel rates have risen by `3.65 to `57.01.
“That situation has not come where we should relook at tax structure,”
The government had in November 2015 and Janu-ary 2016 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel five times to take away gains arising from plummeting international oil prices. Excise duty on petrol was hiked by `4.02 a litre and that on diesel by `6.97.
Prior to that, the government had in four instalments raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel between November 2014 and January 2015 to take away gains arising from fall in crude oil prices.
The four excise duty hikes during this period totalled `7.75 per litre on petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre on diesel. The duty hike led to about `20,000 crore in additional revenue to the government, helping it meet the fiscal deficit target. In all, duty on petrol was hiked by `11.77 per litre and diesel by `13.47.
DESPITE petrol price getting costlier by `6 in a month, oil minister refused to slash higher taxes.
INSTEAD of passing on the benefit of lower crude oil, the Centre had hiked duty on petrol by `11.77 and diesel by 13.47 between November 2014 to January 2016.