Centre admits it earned more from taxes on petrol in last fiscal than previous yrs
KOLKATA: In response to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee seeking details of the Centre's collection of excise duty on petroleum products from the pre-pandemic period (2019-2020) to the present time, the Union government admitted that the total Central excise duty, including cesses, from petroleum products earned in 2020-21 was Rs 3,72, 970 lakh crore — which was more than the tax collected for the same during 2019-2020.
Pankaj Chowdhury, Minister of State for Finance, in a written reply said in 2019- 20, the Centre's collection of excise duty, including cesses, was Rs 2,23,057 lakh crore. In 2020-21, the same became Rs 3,72,970 lakh crore. This clearly shows that during the pandemic, the excise duty collection had gone up steadily.
Earlier, the TMC MP also wanted to know in detail about the government's expected collection from petroleum products, given the price reduction announced on November 3.
The MOS further replied that the Budget estimate of 2021-22 for Union Excise duty was Rs 3.35,000 lakh crore. However, the revised estimates have not yet been finalised.
Trinamool Congress had repeatedly raised the issue of hiking petroleum products prices by imposing cess, which directly goes to the Centre and the states do not earn anything out of it.
The excise duty on petrol rose from Rs 19.48 per litre as on October 5, 2018 to Rs 27.90 a litre as on November 4, 2021. The duty on diesel rose from Rs 15.33 a litre to Rs 21.80 during the same period.
Within this period, the excise on petrol fell from Rs 19.48 per litre as of October 5, 2018 to Rs 17.98 as of July 6, 2019; while excise on diesel reduced from Rs 15.33 to Rs 13.83 during the same reference period. The excise duties on petrol and diesel were on a rising trajectory till February 2, 2021, to Rs 32.98 and Rs 31.83 respectively, before falling a tad and then declining further to Rs 27.90 a litre (petrol) and Rs 21.80 (diesel) as on November 4, 2021.
