Pradhan stated that the price of subsidised LPG has been raised during the last few months from Rs 594 per cylinder in December 2020 to Rs 819 now.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday that taxes on petrol and diesel has swelled collections by over 459%. This comes at a time when there has been a sharp increase in prices of domestic cooking gas, LPG.
Answering questions on rising fuel prices, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Lok Sabha said that the retail selling price of domestic gas was Rs 410.5 per 14.2-kg cylinder on March 1, 2014. This month, the same cylinder costs Rs 819.
Pradhan further stated that the price of domestic subsidised LPG has been raised during the last few months from Rs 594 per cylinder in December 2020 to Rs 819 now.
Giving the example of kerosene, Oil Minister said that kerosene sold through the public distribution system (PDS) has risen from Rs 14.96 per litre in March 2014 to Rs 35.35 this month.
Small price hikes over the past couple of years have eliminated subsidy on cooking gas as well as PDS kerosene.
The rates, which vary from state to state depending on local sales tax (VAT), are currently at Rs 91.17 a litre for petrol and Rs 81.47 for diesel in Delhi.
Petrol and diesel prices to are at an all-time high across the country.
Pradhan said the central government's total excise collection from petrol, diesel, ATF, natural gas and crude oil has increased from Rs 2.37 lakh crore in 2016-17 to Rs 3.01 lakh crore during April-January 2020-21.
Between November 2014 and January 2016, the government had raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions to take away gains arising from plummeting global oil prices.
Data provided by Dharmendra Pradhan
Tax collected on the two fuels was Rs 52,537 crore in 2013, which rose to Rs 2.13 lakh crore in 2019-20.
This swelled further to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.
The government currently levies Rs 32.90 per litre excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 a litre on diesel.
Excise duty on petrol was Rs 17.98 a litre in 2018 and Rs 13.83 on diesel.
The duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 a litre in those 15 months.
The government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 in October 2017, and by Rs 1.50 a year later.
It raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019.
Excise duty was again raised in March 2020, by Rs 3 per litre each.
In May that year, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and on diesel by Rs 13 a litre.
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 "Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan")
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