Tax collection on petrol, diesel up 459% in 7 years; LPG price doubled
In the last seven years, the tax collected on petrol and diesel has increased sharply. The current rate for an LPG cylinder has also double in the same period. Read to know exactly how much petrol, diesel and LPG cylinder prices have increased in India since 2014:
The tax collected on the retail price of petrol and diesel in India has increased by 459 per cent in seven years, according to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan's written reply in Lok Sabha. He also informed on Monday that the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) doubled to Rs 819 per cylinder in the same period.
Pradhan had earlier faced a spate of questions regarding rising energy prices in the country. In a written reply, Pradhan said that the retail price of domestic cooling gas (LPG) was Rs 410.5 per 14.2-kilogram cylinder on March 1, 2014. This has now increased to Rs 819 per cylinder in Delhi.
The steepest hike in domestic cooking gas came in the last few months — from Rs 594 per cylinder in December 2020 to Rs 819 in March 2021.
Sharp increase in fuel tax collections
At a time when fuel prices have become a massive burden for Indian citizens, Dharmendra Pradhan’s reply indicated that there has been a 459 per cent rise in taxes collected on petrol and diesel in the last seven years.
It may be noted that both petrol and diesel prices are retailing at an all-time high across the country. In Delhi, a litre of petrol costs Rs 91.17 per litre and the same quantity of diesel costs Rs 81.47. It is higher in some other major cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
At present, taxes account for a bulk of the retail price of petrol and diesel. Dharmendra Pradhan said taxes collected on the two fuels was Rs 52,537 crore in 2013 and rose to Rs 2.13 lakh crore in 2019-20.
It swelled to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, according to the minister. This is proof that India levies one of the highest taxes on petrol and diesel in the world.
Pradhan said the government currently levies Rs 32.90 per litre excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 per litre on diesel. In contrast, the excise duty on petrol in 2018 was Rs 17.98 and Rs 13.83 on diesel.
The oil minister went on to say that the central government’s total excise duty collection from petrol, diesel, ATF, natural gas and crude oil has increased from Rs 2.37 lakh crore in 2016-17 to Rs 3.01 lakh crore during April-January 2020-21.
The BJP-led NDA government had raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions between November 2014 and January 2016 to take advantage of lower global oil prices.
In those 15 months, the excise duty on petrol was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 per litre. In contrast, there has hardly been any instance where the government has cut excise duty on both fuels.
The government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 in October 2017 and another Rs 1.50 a year later. However, it again raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019 and again in March 2020 by Rs 3 per litre each.
This was followed by another sharp hike in petrol and diesel excise duty in May 2020. The excise duty on petrol was hiked by Rs 10 per litre and by Rs 13 per litre on diesel.
Read | Govt in 'dharmasankat' over fuel prices, says Nirmala Sitharaman