Excise cut stalls fuel hike; Cong calls it ‘cosmetic’

The government has slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 per litre, averting a pump price hike that had become necessary because of soaring global oil prices.
The cut in special additional excise duty on petrol from Rs 13 a litre to Rs 3 and the same on diesel from Rs 10 per litre to nil, will lead to an estimated revenue loss of Rs 1.75 lakh crore.
Alongside, the government brought back duties on export of diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF), according to a notification issued late on Thursday.
The government also imposed an export duty of Rs 21.5 per litre on diesel and Rs 29.5 per litre on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), reinstating a levy first introduced in July 2022 to curb windfall gains by refiners following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and later withdrawn in December 2024.
However, unlike last time, there is no windfall tax that has been levied on domestic crude oil producers like ONGC.
Excise cuts won’t change fuel price for consumers, says Cong: The Congress on Friday claimed that the government’s excise cuts will not change prices for dealers and consumers, and that the relief exists only in the narrative, not in reality.
The Congress said the government should focus on delivering actual relief to consumers, instead of “manufacturing headlines and fooling people.”
The party’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, said, “If you saw the headlines about petrol and diesel prices ‘coming down’ and thought the government had offered relief to your pocket, you’d be mistaken.” As of now, prices remain the same for dealers and for consumers, he claimed.
“What has actually been reduced is the ‘special additional excise duty’. The words ‘special’ and ‘additional’ reveal how unnecessary this tax is,” Khera said on X.