Given the price of crude oil, Revenue Secretary Malhotra sees no justification for lowering gasoline excise duties

Given the price of crude oil, Revenue Secretary Malhotra sees no justification for lowering gasoline excise duties

Given the price of crude oil, Revenue Secretary Malhotra sees no justification for lowering gasoline excise duties

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra claims that the present fuel and diesel excise charge is the lowest it has been in a long time.

Excise duty receipts for 2024–2025 are projected by the interim budget to be Rs 3.19 lakh crore, or barely 5% more than the revised projection for the current fiscal year.

According to Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, there is now "no reason" for the government to lower the excise tax on gasoline and diesel.

In an interview conducted over the weekend, Malhotra told Moneycontrol, "There is no explanation to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel considering the current crude oil rates."

The average price of India's crude oil commodity so far in February is $81.04 per barrel, up from $79.22 per barrel in January, according to statistics from the government's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. On February 2, the New York Mercantile Exchange's most active March 2024 crude oil futures agreement closed at $72.41 a barrel.

Malhotra claims that the excise tax on gasoline and diesel is at its lowest point in the previous four to five years.

The current effective central excise tax is Rs 19.90 for gasoline and Rs 15.80 for one litre of diesel.

"And we haven't had these rates over a very, very long time. The lowest rates in the last seven years are not much lower than today's rates," added Malhotra.

Malhotra refused to respond when asked whether oil marketing corporations will be in charge of lowering pump prices.

The cost of domestic gasoline has not increased much since June 2022.

Excise duty receipts for 2024–2025 are projected by the interim budget to be Rs 3.19 lakh crore, or barely 5% more than the revised projection for the current fiscal year.

Regarding the windfall profit tax on petroleum goods, the Revenue Secretary said that there isn't a plan from the government to remove it at this time. "We will keep reviewing it every 15 days as we currently do."

In July 2022, the government levied a windfall tax on producers of crude oil. The tax on petroleum oil was up from Rs 1,700 per tonne to Rs 3,200 per tonne on February 3. On the other hand, there was no tax on diesel or aviation turbine fuel.