Basic excise duty on unbranded or normal petrol has been increased from Rs.8.48 per litre to Rs.9.48 and the same on unbranded diesel from Rs.9.83 to Rs.11.33, a notification of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said.
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Chennai, Jan. 31: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Sunday slammed the ruling dispensation at Centre for hiking excise duty on petrol and diesel to meet its revenue deficit, saying the NDA-government is not passing the benefits of the crude oil slump to common man.
Because this might just end up getting adjusted against the reduction in rates that may have been possible because of the slide in worldwide oil prices.
With an expected additional Rs 3,200 crore from this price hike, they hope to gather around Rs 17,000 crore in total. The most recent hike has resulted in an increase of 1 per litre of petrol and 1.50 per litre of diesel.
Earlier in the week, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas defended the government’s strategy of utilising low crude oil price environment to raise excise duty on fuel.
It should be noted that the federal government collected 21 per cent sales tax on petrol, 22 per cent on kerosene and 51 per cent sales tax on diesel.
The three hikes this month mean that the tax rates on the two fuels have been raised five times this fiscal.
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2014-2015 saw the government collect 99,184 crore in excise collections from the petroleum sector.
