New Delhi, May 22 (Bureau) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the excise duty reduction of Rs 8 per litre on petrol and Rs 6 per litre on diesel has entirely been made in Road and Infrastructure Cess and hence the entire burden of the duty cut would be borne by the central government. The Minister noted that duty cut on the key auto fuels in November 2021 was also entirely in Road and Infrastructure Cess. “Basic excise duty which is sharable with states has not been touched. Therefore, the entire burden of these two duty cuts is borne by the Centre,” Sitharaman said.
Basic excise duty, special additional excise duty, road & infrastructure cess and agriculture & infrastructure development cess together constitute excise duty on petrol and diesel. While basic excise duty is sharable with states, the other three levies are non-sharable. The Finance Minister said that duty reduction made on Saturday has an implication of Rs 1 lakh crore a year for Centre. Further, she said that the duty reduction made in November’21 has an implication of Rs 1.2 lakh crore annually. “Total revenue implication to Centre, on these two duty cuts is thus Rs 2,20,000 crore a year,” the Minister said.
Quoting data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Sitharaman said that total developmental expenditure incurred by the government during 2014-‘22 was Rs 90.9 lakh crore. “In contrast, only Rs 49.2 lakh crore was spent on developmental expenditure during 2004-‘14,” she said taking a dig at oppositon Congress Party. Taking to Twitter, Congress Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the government has in the last 60 days increased the price of petrol by Rs 10 per litre and now reduced it by Rs 9.50 per litre. “Don’t befool people!” he had said following government’s duty cut announcement on Saturday. He also said that diesel price had been hiked by Rs 10 per litre in last 60 days but was now being reduced only by Rs 7 per litre. Surjewala also drew comparison between excise duty on diesel and petrol during UPA government and now to attack Narendra Modi government.