As the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has increased excise duty and cess of fuel in Budget 2019, petrol prices have soared by Rs 2.5 per litre and diesel prices soared by Rs 2.3 per litre across all metro cities of India.
While petrol is priced at Rs 72.96 in Delhi, up from Rs 70.51 by Rs 2.45 on Friday, diesel prices have reached Rs 66.69, up from Rs 64.33 by Rs 2.36 on Friday. In Mumbai, petrol is priced at Rs 78.57, up by Rs 2.42 from Rs 76.15 on Friday while Diesel’s price has increased to Rs 69.9, up by Rs 2.5 from Rs 67.4 on Friday.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, petrol price is up by Rs 2.4 i.e. from Rs 72.75 to Rs 75.15 per litre and diesel’s price is hiked by Rs 2.36 a litre and stood at Rs 68.59 per litre, up from Rs 66.23 per litre.
Chennai faced the biggest hike as petrol price shot up by Rs 2.57 at Rs 75.15 per litre from the previous price of Rs 72.75 per litre and diesel price shot up by Rs 2.52 at Rs 70.48 per litre from the previous price of Rs 67.96 per litre.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and Indian Oil Corporation shares were down after imposition of special additional excise duty on petrol and diesel.
IOC closed 2.84 percent lower at Rs 152.10, HPCL fell 0.71 percent at Rs 286.60 and BPCL shed 2.80 percent to Rs 369.35 on the NSE.
During her maiden Budget speech of the Modi government on Friday, Nirmala Sitharaman raised excise duty and road and infrastructure cess on the auto fuels by Rs 2 per litre to raise over Rs 28,000 crore. Post considering local sales tax or Value Added Tax (VAT), which is charged after adding central excise duty on base price, the increase in petrol price comes around Rs 2.5 per litre and Rs 2.3 on diesel.
The Finance Minister levied Re 1 per tonne customs or import duty on crude oil, which will also help the government raise additional funds.
Sitharaman said in her Budget 2019 speech, “Crude prices have softened from their highs. This gives me a room to review excise duty and cess on petrol and diesel. I propose to increase Special Additional Excise duty and Road and Infrastructure Cess each by Rs two a litre on petrol and diesel.”
She further added that surcharges on individuals having taxable income of Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore; and Rs 5 crore and more have been raised. There will be no merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on digital transaction made at big establishments having an annual turnover of more than Rs 50 crore.
The finance minister also announced TDS (tax deducted at source) of 2 percent on cash withdrawal of more than Rs 1 crore from a bank account. She said the faceless assessment of tax returns in electronic mode is being launched this year in a phased manner.
