Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ignored the Kirit Parikh Committee report completely while considering petrol and diesel prices for the Indian customers. He raised excise duty and customs duty on fuel making prices go up by Rs. 2.67 per liter for petrol and Rs. 2.58 per liter for diesel.
Customs duty on petrol went up to 7.5 percent from 2.5 percent and excise duty was raised by one rupee to Rs. 14.35 and Rs. 4.60 per liter for non-branded petrol and diesel respectively.
Refiners like Reliance Industries and Essar Oil will also be heavily affected with the new oil prices where Mukherjee has imposed 5 percent import duty on crude oil. So far the duty was nil and after the new rates Reliance Industries alone will be hit by additional burden of Rs. 51,000 crores, which most likely will find its way to the company’s customers.
