New Delhi: The central government has increased the windfall tax on diesel. Aircraft fuel has again been brought under its purview. According to the notification issued by the Finance Ministry, the windfall tax on the export of diesel has been increased from Rs 5 to Rs 7 per liter.
A windfall tax of Rs 2 per liter has been levied again on aircraft fuel. Earlier this month, the unexpected tax on aircraft fuel was completely abolished.
According to the ministry, windfall profit on domestic crude exports has been reduced to Rs 13,000 per tonne. Till now it was attracting tax of Rs 17,750 per tonne. For the first time on July 1, the government had announced an unexpected tax on the export of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and domestic crude oil. After this, the unexpected tax has been changed twice.
At the same time, crude oil prices in the international market have reached a six-month low. Officials said that due to this, Indian retailers are not making losses on the sale of petrol, but the loss on the sale of diesel continues. Diesel is the most widely used fuel in the country. Brent crude, the global oil standard, was at $ 94.91 per barrel on Thursday. Crude oil has fallen to a six-month low of $ 91.51 on the previous day due to concerns of a global recession.
The current price of crude oil is a matter of relief for India, as the country is dependent on imports to meet 85 percent of its oil requirements. Officials with knowledge of the matter said that retail fuel sellers like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) are no longer incurring any loss on petrol due to the fall in prices, but some losses on diesel are still continuing.
State-owned oil companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL have not increased the retail selling price of petrol and diesel at par with the international price. These companies have done so to support the government’s efforts to contain inflation.
These companies were at one point incurring a loss of Rs 20 to 25 per liter on diesel and Rs 14 to Rs 18 per liter on petrol due to increase in international oil prices. An official said the loss on diesel has now come down to Rs four to five per litre.
