Excise duty up again, Arun Jaitley backs hike

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the increase in duty will yield an additional Rs 2,500 crore in revenue during the remainder of the 2015-16 fiscal. After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on unbranded petrol will be Rs 19.36 per litre and on diesel it will be Rs 11.83 per litre. In anticipation of the hike in excise duty, oil companies had on Tuesday announced decrease in petrol price by just 50 paise a litre and by 46 paise on diesel even though crude oil rates are 11 years low.

Attacking the government over increase in duty, Congress leader Anand Sharma said the government saved $88 billion on account of fall in global crude oil prices. The benefits, he said, were not being transferred to consumers and alleged that the government was “profiteering” from the sharp drop in crude prices and trying to cover up for its “fiscal mismanagement”.

Responding on the issue, Mr Jaitley said drop in oil prices is passed on to consumers as petrol prices have been reduced 20 times and that of diesel 16 times. A part of excise duty on diesel and petrol went towards building national highways and rural roads, he said, adding those who drove vehicles “must pay for it”. He further said the revenue from excise collection also shared with states.