New Delhi: Petrol price crossed the psychological Rs 90-mark in Maharashtra’s Parbhani on Monday, the costliest in any Indian city, a day after an Opposition-sponsored Bharat Bandh saw the government reiterate that it had no plans to cut excise duty on petroleum products.
Continuing its upward swing, petrol price touched Rs 80.87 per litre in Delhi and Rs 88.26 per litre in Mumbai, while diesel was retailing at Rs 72.97 per litre and Rs 77 47 per litre in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.
Fuel rates have been on fire since mid-August, rising almost every day due to a drop in rupee value and rise in crude oil rates. Petrol price has risen by Rs 3.65 a litre and diesel by Rs 4.06 per litre — the biggest increase in rates witnessed in any month since the launch of daily price revision in mid-June last year.
Almost half of the fuel price is made up of taxes. The Centre levies a total of Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) — the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 per cent sales tax is charged on both the fuel.
Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 per cent on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26 per cent on diesel. Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel.
The central government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre.
This led to its excise collections from petro goods more than doubling in last four years — from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18. States saw their VAT revenue from petro goods rise from Rs 1,37,157 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,84,091 crore in 2017-18.
Quoting a top government official, a PTI report said four states which supported Monday’s Bharat Bandh collect high taxes themselves. Andhra Pradesh gets Rs 22.15 per litre on petrol and Rs 16.87 on diesel. Karnataka gets Rs 18.88 on petrol, Rs 12.23 on diesel, Kerala Rs 19.09 on petrol and Rs 14.51 on diesel and Punjab gets Rs 21.81 per litre in taxes on petrol and Rs 10.07 a litre on diesel.
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