Excise duty hiked on petrol, diesel

The government on Wednesday 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. Basic excise duty on unbranded petrol has been increased from Rs 7.06 per litre to Rs 7.36 and the same on unbranded diesel from Rs 4.66 to Rs 5.83 per litre. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the increase in duty will yield an additional Rs 2,500 crore in revenue during the remainder of the 2015-16 fiscal which ends on March 31, 2016.