The Centre has admitted in the parliament that it earns a huge amount of revenue from fuel via excise duty, cess and surcharge as the the petrol and diesel prices continued to stay at the peak for the 16th straight day on Monday (March 15).
Since May 6, 2020, the government has been earning Rs 33 per litre of petrol and Rs 32 on a litre of diesel in form of central excise duty, including basic excise duty, cess and surcharge, reads a India Today report.
Between March and May 5, 2020, the central government’s per litre earning on petrol and diesel was almost Rs 23 and Rs 19, respectively on per litre of diesel.
The central and state levies make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of diesel price. If a consumer is paying Rs 100 for a litre of petrol, almost Rs 33 goes to the Centre, while it’s Rs 32 on a litre of diesel.
The skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel has affected the common man including transporters, commercial truck drivers, etc. The opposition has staged protests in different parts of the country against the hike. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, bizman Robert Vadra were among the protestors who agitated against the fuel price hike by riding e-bike and cycles.
The opposition has been questioning the “politically fixed freeze” in fuel prices as rates of petroleum products in the country are benchmarked to international product prices.
In reply to a query in Lok Sabha, MoS Finance Anurag Thakur informed that “generally, the prices of petroleum products in the country are higher/lower than other countries due to a variety of factors, including prevailing tax regime and subsidy compensations by the respective governments, the details of which are not maintained by the government”.
The minister also said, “The excise duty rates have been calibrated to generate resources for infrastructure and other developmental items of expenditure keeping in view the present fiscal position.”
On Monday, unbranded petrol was retailing in Delhi at Rs 91.17 per litre while diesel was Rs 81.47. In Mumbai, petrol was retailing at Rs 97.57, while diesel cost Rs 88.60.
