No excise duty cut on petrol, diesel for now: DEA secretary

NEW DELHI: The government is not considering slicing excise responsibility on petrol and diesel but as charges have no longer touched ranges that would cause such an action, stated Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.

State oil firms have no longer revised petrol and diesel price for almost per week now. This comes after the prices of petrol hit a 55-month prime of Rs 74.63 a litre and diesel charges climbed to a document prime of Rs 65.93.

In an interview to PTI, Garg stated oil costs can affect the federal government's fiscal maths if they result in a spike in charges of home cooking gas (LPG) - the only commodity this is subsidised now.

"Otherwise there is no direct subsidy any longer," he stated. "Indirect subsidy/impact comes, if crude oil prices reach a certain level (and) there might by some rethink about excise duty etc. That's not happened so far."

Without indicating the extent of oil costs that would cause an excise responsibility cut, he stated, "If the level (of prices now) does not go up, there is no reason (for excise duty cut)."

Every rupee cut in excise responsibility on petrol and diesel will result in a income lack of Rs 13,000 crore.

Asked if there may be any thinking of slicing excise responsibility or asking PSU oil firms to carry charges till elections in Karnataka, he stated, "We have not seen anything (on it)."

The central government levies Rs 19.48 a litre of excise responsibility on petrol and Rs 15.33 according to litre on diesel. State sales tax or VAT vary from state to state. In Delhi, VAT on petrol is Rs 15.84 and Rs 9.68 a litre on diesel.

The government is hoping that geopolitical tensions would ease and US shale oil would lend a hand ease oil costs that are close to three-year prime.

"Fundamental reasons, to my mind, don't exist for oil prices to go up further from both demand and supply situation," Garg stated.

The recent spurt will have been as a result of inventory drawdowns, business tensions and geopolitics around Syria and Korea.

"I think demand-supply situation is also turning alright. I think those (geopolitical issues) are also getting out of the way. So I don't expect prices to go up further and that's why I said ideally it should come down," he stated.

State-owned oil firms, which were since June last yr revising auto fuel costs daily, nowadays saved petrol and diesel charges unchanged for the 6th day in a row.

Petrol in the nationwide capital costs Rs 74.63 a litre, the very best since September 14, 2013, when charges had hit Rs 76.06. Diesel price at Rs 65.93 is the very best ever.

India has the very best retail costs of petrol and diesel amongst South Asian nations as taxes account for half of the pump charges.

The government had raised excise responsibility nine times between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up price range as global oil costs fell, however then cut the tax just once in October last yr via Rs 2 a litre.

Subsequent to that excise responsibility aid, the Centre had asked states to also lower VAT, however just four of them - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh - decreased charges while others including BJP-ruled ones unnoticed the call.

In all, responsibility on petrol fee used to be hiked via Rs 11.77 according to litre and that on diesel via 13.47 a litre in the ones 15 months that helped government's excise mop up greater than double to Rs 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15.