NEW DELHI: After the government imposed windfall tax on oil producers and cess on the export of petrol, diesel and ATF, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman said as India is highly dependent on other countries for its energy needs, it was important for the Centre to take such steps to discourage exports.
Calling the current situation as “extraordinary”, she said the domestic refiners and exploration companies are not supplying wholesale consumers for the domestic needs.“They are exporting it at phenomenal profits. These are extraordinary times and we need oil for domestic activities also, so it was important to take such steps,” Sitharaman told reporters.
India buys oil from different sources and the government is trying to see where it can procure it in a cost-effective way. “We are also making sure the excise duty is cut down so that the burden on citizens is not there. But with all this being done, if oil is not being available and they are being exported at such phenomenal profits... Good for those earning profits, but these are extraordinary times and we need some of the oil for our own citizens,” she stated.
Meanwhile, she also added that the government will review the cess and price of oil every 15 days. The statement comes after the Centre imposeda cess of Rs 6 per litre on petrol and ATF exports and Rs 13 per litre on the export of diesel. Also a cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne (by way of special additional excise duty-SAED) has been imposed on crude. “Crude is sold by domestic producers at global parity price.
This cess will have no adverse impact, whatsoever, on domestic petroleum products/fuel prices. Further, small producers, whose annual production of crude in the preceding financial year is less than 2 million barrels will be exempt from this cess,” the Centre said. Also, to incentivise an additional production over preceding year, there will be no cess on such quantity of crude that is produced in excess of last year production, it added. On the revenue impact, the Finance Minister said she could not immediately give a figure.
Government imposes cess on petrol, diesel, ATF exports
Government imposed a cess of Rs 6 per litre on petrol and ATF exports and Rs 13 per litre on diesel export. Also a cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne has been imposed on crude