Utkal Reporter Bureau|4 October 2017
The Government of India has reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs2 per liter with effect from 4th October, thus petrol and diesel price per liter will be cheaper by the same amount.
“Govt of India has reduced Basic Excise Duty rate on petrol and diesel [both branded and unbranded] by Rs 2 per liter w.e.f. 4th October,2017,” the finance ministry informed through a tweet.
The Ministry has noted that the cut in the excise duty was made to cushion the impact of rising international price of petroleum on the retail sale of petrol and diesel. And aded this would protect the interest of common man.
Petrol and diesel rate has been climbing up since these two fuels were put under daily price revision mechanism from June 16 this year. Since July 4 petrol rate has increase by more than Rs7 per liter and for diesel the rise is more than Rs5 per liter.Thus in August petrol and diesel price became the maximum in three years.
The upward motion of this important fuel price has stirred up public and political reactions against the NDA Government..The Government’s capability and intention to take on fuel price issue was quizzed. People raised question on the over- size excise duty on petrol and diesel.
The central government claims Rs 21.48 as excise duty from a liter of petrol while from diesel it is Rs17.33. this is claimed to be the area open for revision to help the fuel price calm down.
However the Union Government was reluctant to go for any cut in the excise duty on the liquid fuels citing revenue loss.
The Finance Ministry mentioned,The Revenue loss on account of these reductions in excise duty is about Rs. 26,000 crore in a full year, and about Rs. 13000 crore during the remaining part of the current financial year.
Earlier due to the increase in the international prices of Petrol and Diesel, during the last few weeks, the Retail Selling Prices (RSP) of Petrol and Diesel at Delhi have risen to Rs. 70.83/litre and Rs. 59.07/litre respectively, as on 2nd October 2017. This rise in the prices of Petrol and Diesel is also reflected in WPI inflation, which has increased to 3.24% for the month of August 2017, as compared to 1.88% for the month of July 2017.This also prompted the Government to act swiftly in this regard
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