New Delhi. During the seven years of the Modi government, excise duty on petrol, diesel and crude oil has earned more than income tax. Earned 3.5 times the excise duty on petrol and almost five times more than diesel. This has been revealed by an analysis by CNN-News18. According to the official data obtained from the analysis, the central excise duty on petrol and the tax collected by the central government on the fuel has increased more than three times since 2014-15. Even the price of crude oil has almost halved during the same period.
In 2014, the central excise duty on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre. At present, the central excise duty on petrol is Rs 32.9 per litre. According to the data received from the Union Finance Ministry, this increase is about 3.5 times. Central excise duty on petrol was Rs 29,279 crore in 2014-15, which has tripled to Rs 89,575 crore in the first 10 months of 2020-21.
Save 5 thousand crores from the purchase of crude oil
Between 2014-15 and 2020-21, the average price of Indian crude oil has fallen by almost half from $84.16 a barrel to $44.82 a barrel. The average Indian crude oil price in 2020-21 was the lowest since 2005-06, according to data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. According to data received from the Ministry of Petroleum, India saved more than Rs 5,000 crore in April-May 2020. This is how the government filled three of its strategic underground crude oil reserves by buying oil at a low price of two decades.
Excise duty on diesel increased by nine times
Central excise duty on diesel was Rs 3.56 per liter in 2014 which has increased to Rs 31.8 per liter in 2021. That is, now the excise duty is almost nine times more. Like petrol, the tax collected by the central government on diesel has increased nearly five times since 2014-15. The central excise duty collected on diesel in 2014-15 was Rs 42,881 crore. Data from the Union Finance Ministry shows that it increased to Rs 2.04 lakh crore during the period April 2020-January 2021.
At the same time, the total central excise duty collected on petrol, diesel, natural gas has increased by almost 4 times. The total central excise duty collected on petrol, diesel and natural gas increased nearly four times since 2014 when it stood at Rs 74,158 crore. This increased to Rs 2.95 lakh crore during the period April 2020-January 2021. In addition, central taxes on petrol, diesel and natural gas as a percentage of BE to gross total revenue have increased by about 126 per cent since 2014-15.
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