With the revision in petrol prices on Sunday – April 2, 2018, a litre of fuel will cost INR 73.73 in Delhi which is a new high in the last four years. Diesel, on the other hand, is sold at INR 64.58 per litre which is its all-time high in the Indian market. India has the highest retail prices of petrol and diesel among South Asian nations.
The daily revision of prices saw petrol and diesel prices rise by INR 0.18 per litre in the National Capital. From June 2017, state-owned oil companies opted to revise petrol and diesel prices on daily basis, instead of revising the rates on the 1st and 16th of every month.
The Oil Ministry had sought a reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ignored the requests in the recently announced Budget.
While the government had cut excise duty by INR 2 per litre in October 2017, it had raised the duties nine times between November 2014 and January 2016. The overall duty on petrol rate was hiked by INR 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by INR 13.47 a litre in those 15 months. The revised excise duties helped the Government earn INR 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17 from INR 99,000 crore in 2014-15.
Source: PTI via ET Auto