Excise receipts on petrol, diesel jump 40% till Oct in FY21

 Mint

December 08, 2020

Gireesh Chandra Prasad

The Centre’s receipts from excise duty, the bulk of which comes from petrol, diesel and crude oil, has shown a sharp 40% year-on-year jump in the first seven months of this fiscal, even as the pandemic and the economic recession brought down overall tax receipts by 16%.

The Centre’s receipts from excise duty stood at ₹1.6 trillion in the April-October period, markedly above the ₹1.14 trillion collected in the same period a year ago, data from the Controller General of Accounts showed.

In the same period, receipts from corporate tax, personal income tax, goods and service tax (GST) and the cess collected from items in the 28% GST bracket showed a contraction ranging from 17-37% from the year-ago levels. This reflected the loss of incomes and a demand slump in the economy.

The sharp fall in global oil prices earlier this year had given the government an unexpected revenue source, prompting increases in the taxes on petrol and diesel. Since March, the government had in two tranches raised the special additional excise duty and the additional excise duty on petrol and diesel collected as road and infrastructure cess, leading to an increase of ₹13 on petrol and ₹16 on diesel per litre.

The tax increases did not raise the retail price but denied the benefit of low global fuel prices to consumers. Oil prices have since clawed back, with economic activity picking up pace. Crude price, which was at a monthly average of $19.9 a barrel in April, traded around $48 a barrel on Monday.

The elevated level of energy taxes during a recession while policy makers are attempting a manufacturing-led recovery indicates the limited alternative revenue-raising means available to the government. Overall tax receipts have stayed below year-ago levels and stake sales in state-run companies have not taken off during the pandemic. As such, the Centre has re-prioritized its spending for the current year and scaled up borrowing.

Petrol costs ₹83-90 a litre in metro cities and diesel ₹73-80 a litre. India follows a market-linked pricing regime called trade parity pricing for petrol and diesel and there is no subsidy.

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/excise-on-petrol-diesel-shows-sharp-growth-even-as-overall-tax-receipts-slump-11607413490980.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more