Fuel on fire: In these cities, petrol breached Rs 100/litre mark

On and around February 14 this year, those who wanted to go on a long ride with their beau in many cities and towns of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh had a shock in waiting. When they went to the nearest pump to fill the tank of their vehicles, they found the price of premium variety of petrol crossing the Rs 100/litre mark, which was the first time the fuel galloped past the psychological mark.

The cities where the price of a litre of the fuel rose above the Rs 100 mark included Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, Indore, the commercial capital of the state and a host of towns such as Nagarabandj, Alirajpur, Burhanpur, Rewa, Panna, Satna, Shivpuri, Umaria and Seoni witnessed the price zoom past the psychological mark.

In Parbhani district of Maharashtra, too, the price of petrol crossed Rs 100.

In Alirajpur of MP, the price of a litre of premium petrol went as high as Rs 103.68.

Hit by the rising fuel prices, the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan decided to slash VAT in end-January. In this state petrol and diesel are taxed at 36% and 26% by the state. The tax was reduced by 2 percentage points bringing down the component on a litre of petrol by Rs 1.34 and Rs 1.31 respectively. However, the amount was too meagre to have any pronounced effect on the priceline.

Incidentally, among the four metros the price of petrol is the highest in Mumbai where the price of normal petrol rose to Rs 97.57 in February-March.

As the price of petrol and diesel relentlessly marched northwards, the government filled up its coffers despite a sharp dip in demand for most parts of the year.

Minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur said in Lok Sabha on Monday that the Centre collected Rs 2.94 lakh crore as revenue from the two fuels in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.

Annualised, the tax collection under this head only can go up to Rs 3.528 lakh crore.

In 2019-20, the Centre collected Rs 3.34 lakh crore as excise duty from diesel and petrol.

Taxes levied by both the Centre and the state governments constitute over 60% of the retail price of petrol and diesel in most of the states making Indian petro products the most highly taxed in the world.

Thakur also revealed that the Centre’s tax collections from petrol and diesel jumped 300% in the past six years.

The Union government collected Rs 72,160 crore – Rs 29,279 crore from excise duty on petrol and Rs 42,881 crore on diesel – in 2014-15.