No Customs, Excise Duty Rollback On Oil.

Government on Tuesday virtually ruled out any cut in customs duty on crude oil import and excise duty reduction in petroleum products that could have saved common man from raising prices of petroleum products.

“Any rollback of customs duty on crude oil or excise duty on petroleum products on account of rising crude prices or on account of deregulation of diesel prices will significantly impact our indirect tax collection as well,” revenue secretary Sunil Mitra said at annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of income tax on Tuesday.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2010-11 had restored basic duty of 5 per cent on crude petroleum; 7.5 per cent on diesel and petrol and 10 per cent on other refined products. Mukherjee also raised the central excise duty on petrol and diesel by Re 1 per litre each.

The new duties on crude oil and other petroleum products will help government earn nearly Rs 6,000 crore, said the then finance secretary Ashok Chawla.

Former oil minister Murli Deora had proposed to Mukherjee before 2011-12 Budget to consider reducing these duties to lessen the burden on “aam admi”. Oil minister S Jaipal Reddy too made similar proposals to the finance ministry, which did not get favourable response.

India imports nearly 78 per cent of its annual crude oil requirement of 110-130 million tonnes. The Brent crude price has shown a northward rally since the beginning of 2011. This has weighed high on consumers. On May 15, oil-marketing companies hiked retail price of petrol by Rs 5 per litre. An empowered group of ministers headed by Mukherjee is likely to meet shortly to review diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices.

Currently, the three state-run oil marketing companies — IOC, HPCL and BPCL — incur a loss of Rs 14.66 on a litre of diesel, Rs 28.28 on a litre of kerosene and Rs 329.73 on a domestic cooking gas cylinder.

Source : mydigitalfc.com