Government hikes excise duty on petrol and diesel

Government has hiked the excise duty on petrol by Rs 2.25 per litre and diesel by Rs 1 per litre. This decision was taken after the decline of crude oil price in the international market. The price hike will be affective from December 3.

This move will boost the Government’s revenue and will also reduce the country’s fiscal deficit by a great margin. With this hike, the government is expected to get around Rs 4,000 crore in its kitty. However, the good news is that the consumers will be spared from this hike. 

This is the second hike in excise duty in three weeks. A fortnight ago, the government had raised the excise duty by Rs 1.50 per litre on both petrol and diesel but that did not have any impact on the retail prices. Just yesterday, the oil marketing companies reduced the petrol and diesel price by Rs 90 paise a litre and 84 paise a litre respectively. We can expect the oil marketing companies to cut the petrol and diesel price again after a fortnight, if the international rate continues to go down.