NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday evening hiked excise duty by a record Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel to garner Rs 1.6 lakh crore additional revenue. The change in duties will come into effect from 6 May, an official notification said.

Retail prices of petrol and diesel will not be impacted by the tax changes as state-owned oil firms will adjust them against the recent fall in oil prices, industry officials said.

According to a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, special additional excise duty on petrol has been hiked by Rs 2 per litre and road cess has been hiked by Rs 8 a litre.

In case of diesel, special additional excise duty has been hiked by Rs 5 per litre and road cess has been raised by Rs 8 a litre.

With this, the total incidence of excise duty on petrol has risen to Rs 32.98 per litre and that on diesel to Rs 31.83.

This is the second time since March that the government has hiked excise duty to mop up gains arising from fall in international oil prices. It had raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each in March to garner about Rs 39,000 crore.

Petrol costs Rs 71.26 a litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 69.39.

Government sources said the Centre has taken this step of increasing duty to raise some revenue in view of a tight fiscal situation. This would help in generating the resources to meet the expense of coronavirus fight. (PTI)

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