Centre refuses to cut tax to avoid petrol price hike

New Delhi: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday ruled out cutting taxes on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of rising international oil prices that has led to petrol rates increasing by over Rs 6 per litre since the beginning of July.

State-owned oil companies in June dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month and instead adopted a dynamic daily price revision to instantly reflect changes in cost. Rates during the first fortnight dropped but have since July 3 been on the rise.

While petrol prices have increased by Rs 6.08 to reach Rs 69.12 a litre in Delhi, the highest since August 2014, diesel rates have risen by Rs 3.65 to Rs 57.01.

“That situation has not come where we should relook at tax structure,” The government had in November 2015 and Janu-ary 2016 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel five times to take away gains arising from plummeting international oil prices. Excise duty on petrol was hiked by '4.02 a litre and that on diesel by '6.97.

Prior to that, the government had in four instalments raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel between November 2014 and January 2015 to take away gains arising from fall in crude oil prices.

The four excise duty hikes during this period totalled Rs 7.75 per litre on petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre on diesel. The duty hike led to about Rs 20,000 crore in additional revenue to the government, helping it meet the fiscal deficit target. In all, duty on petrol was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and diesel by Rs 13.47.