Government announces increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel

- Excise duty on petrol and diesel will be hiked by Re 1 each

- The hike was announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharam during the 2019 budget

Fuel prices are set to rise as the government of India has increased the excise duty for petrol as well as diesel. According to the union budget announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier today, both diesel and petrol will witness a hike of Re 1 per litre, attributed to increased excise duty.

Currently, the government of India charges excise duty at the rate of Rs 17.98 per litre on petrol and Rs 13.83 per litre of diesel. Additionally, Rs 14.98 and Rs 9.47 are charged on petrol and diesel as VAT respectively. The total taxation on petrol and diesel thus comes to Rs 32.96 for petrol and Rs 23.30 for diesel.

In the recent past, the government began increasing the excise duty on fuel prices even as the global prices of fuel witnessed a decline. According to an estimate of the Ministry of Finance, the central government’s gross revenue collection for FY2019 was 2.5579 lakh crore, up from 2.016 lakh crore during the same period last year.