Oil marketing companies on Friday night cut petrol price by 32 paise a litre and diesel by 85 paise per litre as crude prices are hovering at 12 years low.
Oil marketing companies on Friday night cut petrol price by 32 paise a litre and diesel by 85 paise per litre as crude prices are hovering at 12 years low.
However, Centre once again didn’t fully passed on the benefit of low crude oil prices to the consumers.
It hiked excise duty on petrol by 75 paise a litre and on diesel by Rs 2 per litre on Friday and pocketed a part of benefit of low crude oil prices.
In case Modi government had not hiked excise duty on Friday the cut in petrol would have been Rs 1 a litre and on diesel Rs 2.85 a litre.
This is the eight hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel by the Modi government since November 2014. Despite the claims of the government, it is the consumer who pay the increased excise duty as petrol and diesel prices have been de-controlled.
After the decrease petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 59.03 a litre and diesel Rs 44.18 per litre. Interestingly as per the last trading prices available, India was buying crude at around Rs 11.55 per litre.
This means crude oil right now is cheaper than even bottle water which costs around Rs 15 a litre.
The Modi government has been increasing excise duty to meet its tight fiscal deficit target as it has not been able to meet the disinvestment target due to choppy market conditions.
Basic excise duty on unbranded or normal petrol has been increased from Rs 7.73 per litre to '8.48 and the same on unbranded diesel from Rs 7.83 to Rs 9.83 per litre, a notification of the central board of excise and customs (CBEC) said.
The increase in excise duty will fetch the government over Rs 3,700 crore during the remaining period of the current fiscal.
