The price of petrol will come down by Rs 9.5 while diesel will be cheaper by Rs 7 today. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a sharp cut in central excise duty on fuel prices amid surging inflation. This comes days after the Reserve Bank of India’s hike in the repo rate to stem inflation.
The government has reduced the central excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 a litre, said Sitharaman. The government says it will lose Rs 1 lakh crore by taking the cut on central excise duties.
The minister urged states to implement a similar reduction in their respective levies on fuel and pass the benefit on to the ordinary citizen.
“I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where the reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man,” appealed the union finance minister.
The government will also give Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels.
“This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around Rs 6,100 crore a year,” Sitharaman said.
“We are also reducing the customs duty on raw materials & intermediaries for plastic products where our import dependence is high. This will result in a reduction in the cost of final products,” Sitharaman added.
“I congratulate the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister on behalf of the people of the state for this decision,” tweeted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, welcoming the price cuts.
The finance minister said the gas cylinder subsidy will have a “revenue implication of around Rs 6,100 crore.”
April witnessed India’s wholesale and consumer prices accelerate at their fastest in years, prompting the central bank to hike interest rates at an unscheduled policy meeting this month.
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