Petrol And Diesel Prices Hiked Yet Again

The fuel prices in the country have again witnessed a hike on Friday morning with petrol being sold at Rs. 78.52 per litre and diesel at Rs. 70.21 per litre Delhi. The petrol price has been increased by Rs. 0.22 per litre since Thursday and diesel price by Rs. 0.28 per litre in the national capital. The surge in fuel prices is largely due to rise in the cost of crude oil and high excise duty levied on transportation fuel in the country. The Brent crude oil is currently priced around $76.68 per barrel.

Also Read: Diesel Prices On All-Time High; Petrol Prices Also On The Rise

In Mumbai, petrol prices have shot up from Rs 85.72 per litre on Thursday, to Rs 85.93 per litre (increased by Rs 0.21 per litre), and diesel prices have increased by Rs 0.30 per litre from Rs 74.24 per litre to Rs 74.54 per litre.

On August 30, the petrol price was Rs 78.30 per litre in Delhi while diesel price was increased to Rs 69.93. In Mumbai, petrol was sold at Rs 85.72 per litre and diesel at Rs 74.24 per litre.

The Union finance ministry has not mooted any proposal to bring petrol and diesel or even natural gas under GST but took up the issue at the last GST Council meeting on August 4 based on media reports. If the two fuels are put under GST, the Centre will have to let go Rs. 20,000 crore input tax credit it currently pockets by keeping petrol, diesel, natural gas, jet fuel and crude oil out of the GST regime. States, on the other hand, want to keep a revenue tool in their hand to meet any contingency like the floods in Kerala.

Also Read: No GST On Petrol, Diesel In Near Future As Centre, States Not In Favour

The Centre currently levies a total of Rs. 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs. 15.33 per litre on diesel. On top of this, states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) - the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where a 6 per cent sales tax is charged on both the fuel. Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 per cent on petrol, while Telangana levies highest VAT of 26 per cent on diesel. Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol and 17.24 per cent on diesel. The total tax incidence on petrol comes to 45-50 per cent and diesel comes to 35-40 per cent.