Centre on Monday asked the state governments to reduce taxes on petroleum products, saying it was open to considering reduction of excise duties as fuel prices continued to soar across the country.
“Let me say it with greater clarity. You also reduce it in states, we can also think of doing something here (at the Centre). We will have to do it together,” Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha while replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.
He was responding to a question from YSRCP leader P V Midhun Reddy whether the Centre had a time frame to reduce the prices of petrol and diesel.
He said both – the Centre and the state government have the right to impose excise duties and VAT respectively on petroleum products and they have done so.
Thakur said that the fuel prices were on the rise as global crude prices, which were $19 per barrel in March last year, had risen to $61-62 in the last week of February this year.
In response to another question, Thakur said excise duty on petrol was Rs 19.98 per litre a year ago and it is Rs 32.9 now. Similarly, on diesel, the excise duty has been raised from Rs 15.83 to Rs 31.8.
“The excise duty rates have been calibrated to generate resources for infrastructure and other developmental items of expenditure keeping in view the present fiscal position,” he said.
The government had ended subsidies on petrol in 2010 and diesel in 2014.
(Published 15 March 2021, 09:15 IST)
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