New Delhi. The central government has made a big reduction in the price of petrol and diesel. Excise duty has been reduced by Rs 8 per liter on petrol and Rs 6 per liter on diesel. With this big cut in excise duty, petrol will be cheaper by Rs 9 and a half and diesel by Rs 7 per liter. The new prices have come into effect from midnight on Saturday. Earlier, the Center had reduced the excise duty in November last year. Then the excise duty was cut before the assembly elections to be held in five states including Uttar Pradesh. However, after the elections, the petroleum companies had increased the price of both the fuels.
However, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced a reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel. After the cut on Saturday, petrol in the capital Delhi will be Rs 95.91 instead of Rs 105.41 and diesel will be Rs 89.67 instead of Rs 96.67. Till now, the central government charges excise duty of Rs 27.90 on petrol and Rs 21.80 on diesel. After this reduction, now excise duty will be charged on petrol at Rs 19.90 and diesel at Rs 15.80.
Keep in mind that recently the Prime Minister had advised the opposition-ruled states to levy sales tax or VAT on them. After cutting the excise duty of the central government, now there will be pressure on the states to reduce the local taxes. Earlier on November 3 last year, the Center had reduced the excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 and on diesel by Rs 10. After that, except for a few, most states had cut their local taxes.
Along with cutting the duty on petrol and diesel, the Union Finance Minister also announced a subsidy of two hundred rupees on LPG cylinders. This subsidy will be available to more than nine crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. This subsidy will be given on 12 cylinders in a year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted and said – This year, more than nine crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will be given a subsidy of two hundred rupees per gas cylinder. This will help our mothers and sisters. He wrote – This will affect the annual revenue of about Rs.61 hundred crores.
It is worth noting that at present, people have to pay between one thousand to 11 hundred rupees for domestic gas cylinders across the country. In such a situation, the central government will give relief to the general public. But those people who have given up the subsidy will not get any benefit. Apart from this, the Finance Minister tweeted and said – We are also reducing customs duty on raw materials and middlemen for plastic products, where our import dependence is high. This will reduce the cost of the final products. He further wrote- Similarly we are reducing customs duty on raw materials and middlemen for iron and steel to reduce their prices.
