Roll back excise duty hike on petrol, diesel: HR Congress

Leader of the Haryana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Kiran Choudhry has demanded immediate roll-back of hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel.
The government today increased excise duty on petrol by Rs 0.30 per litre and by Rs 1.17 a litre on diesel to make use of slump in oil prices to garner an additional Rs 2,500 crore.
In a statement here, the former Excise and Taxation Minister of the state said that instead of reducing the duty following 11 per cent fall in the prices of crude oil within 15 days, the central government had hiked it to earn additional revenue for making wasteful expenditure on publicity in the financial year 2015-16.

The basic excise duty on unbranded petrol has been increased from Rs 7.06 per litre to Rs 7.36 and on unbranded diesel from Rs 4.66 to Rs 5.83 per litre.
"Within just 18 months, the Centre has hiked the excise duty six times and gained 200 per cent. This is the sixth hike by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. At present, the price of crude oil barrel is USD 36.55 per barrel which is the lowest in 11 years. Still, the Centre is hiking the excise duty, which is not justified," she said.
After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on unbranded petrol will be Rs 19.36 per litre against Rs 19.06 a litre currently.

Similarly, on unbranded or normal diesel, total excise duty after including special excise duty will be Rs 11.83 per litre as compared to Rs 10.66 now, she said.
Instead of giving relief to the common man, the BJP Government is now burdening him with additional duties, she said.