On 26 July every year , we remember the Kargil War's Heroes. On this date in 1999 India successfully took command of the high outposts. The Kargil war was fought for more than 60 days and ended on 26 July 1999.The Kargil war resulted in loss of life on both the sides and was ended when India regained control over the post and ejected the Pakistani Army out of the territory.
Its an never-ending war. There is no end to hike in duties on petrol and diesel. Govt is minting money by increasing the excise duties on petrol and diesel regularly. Central excise duty on petrol has almost doubled and gone up by 88 per cent in the last six years. Similarly, the excise duty on ridiesel has gone up by three times and witnessed a 209 per cent hike during the same period.
Consequently, the fuel prices across the country have crossed Rs. 100 per litre. Look at the data and find for yourself how excise duty on petrol and diesel has sky-rocketed. As on July 1, 2015, excise duty on petrol was Rs. 17.46 per litre including cess, according to official data. on July 1, 2021, central excise duty on petrol was Rs. 32.90 per litre inclusive of cess, This shows that excise duty has almost doubled on petrol in six years between July 2015 and July 2021 and witnessed 88 per cent increase.
Excise duty on diesel has gone up by a whopping 209 per cent during the same period, as it isRs. 31.80 per litre including cess as on July 1, 2021 while it was Rs 10.26 per litre including cess as on July 1, 2015.
Since 2015, the Modi Government has used the fall in crude prices to mobilize additional revenue. Had the fall in global crude oil prices in the last five years were fully passed through to consumers, the retail price of refined products would have been lower by Rs 0.50/litre for every $1-barrel reduction in crude prices. In other words, every $1-barrel reduction in crude price gave the govt an opportunity to hike duties by Rs 0.50 a litre.
It is to be noted that the burden of tax increase, so far, has fallen more on diesel than on petrol. In March 2014, a litre of diesel was cheaper than petrol by about Rs 15a litre on average across the country. Taxes accounted for 31 percent of the retail price of petrol and about 19 percent of the retail price of diesel respectively.
In June 2020, the tax component on petrol and diesel was at 69 percent and 58 percent respectively. The retail price of diesel exceeded the retail price of petrol in Delhi and the discount on the price of diesel was less than a rupee or two compared to the retail price of petrol across the country. Excise on petrol increased by over 200 percent from about Rs 10.38 a litre in March 2014 to Rs 32.98 a litre in September 2020. For diesel, the increase was a more dramatic 600 percent in the same period from Rs 4.58 a litre to Rs 31.8e a litre. Increase in value added tax (State tax) [VAT] was far less steep in most States. For petrol, VAT increased by roughly 60 percent from Rs 11.9 to about Rs 18.94 a litre. For diesel VAT increased by about 68 percent from Rs 6.41 to Rs 10.8 a litre in the same period in Delhi. The fall in the price of crude (Indian basket) was a modest 28 percent from $84.16 barrel in 2014-15 to $60.47 barrel in 2019-20 .The price fell further. The price of Brent crude has fallen under USD 63 per barrel from a high of USD 70 per barrel in early March 2021.
As a result of steep hike in excise duties, petrol prices in the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata have crossed more than Rs 100 per litre while diesel prices in the four metros are in the range of Rs, 90 to Rs. 98 per litre. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, petrol prices have crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark.
It is to be recalled that govt is pick-pocking its people, Apart from skyrocketing excise duties, 28.3%. revenue come from personal income tax. So, its true Ram Rajya!
(Chander Sharma)
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