The national government’s tax income from petrol and diesel climbed by 88% to Rs 3.35 lakh crore in the fiscal year ending March 31, after excise duty was raised to a higher rate, according to a government statement read out in the Lok Sabha recently. Last year, the excise levy on petrol was raised from Rs 19.98 per litre to Rs 32.98 in order to recover losses caused by world oil prices crashing to multi-year lows because of decreasing demand.
According to the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr Rameswar Teli, the excise duty for diesel was also hiked from 15.83 per litre to 31.83 per litre. As a consequence, petrol and diesel excise collections climbed to Rs 3.35 lakh crore in 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021), up from Rs 1.78 lakh crore the previous year. Collections would have been higher if there were no restrictions owing to lockdown and pandemics.
In response to another question, Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary stated that excise revenues in April-June this year were Rs. 1.01 lakh crore. This figure covers not only excise on petrol or diesel but also natural gas, ATF and crude oil. “As of June 26, 2010, and October 19, 2014, respectively, petrol and diesel prices are market-determined,” Teli informed. Since then, the Public Sector OMCs have made appropriate pricing decisions for petrol and diesel based on international product prices and other market factors.
At present in many states, the prices of petrol and diesel are more than Rs 100 per litre and diesel is above that mark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. The Minister stated that the prices vary from state to state due to freight rates and VAT/local taxes. As demand has increased, worldwide oil prices have risen, it resulted in record-breaking petrol and diesel prices across the country.
