Forget fuel relief, govt hikes windfall tax on domestic crude, diesel export, ATF

New Delhi: The government has hiked special additional excise duty on crude petroleum to Rs 7,100 per tonne with effect from August 15. In the last fortnightly review, windfall tax on domestically produced crude oil was set at Rs 4,250 per tonne. The decision came on Monday.

Besides, the Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) or duty on export of diesel will be hiked to Rs 5.50 per litre from Re 1 per litre at present.

A duty of Rs 2 per litre will be imposed on jet fuel or ATF with effect from August 15. Currently, there is no SAED on the jet fuel.

SAED on petrol will continue to be zero.

India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, 2022.

Earlier, the government had cut windfall gains tax on domestically produced crude oil to nil while continuing the rate at zero on the export of diesel and ATF.

This cut on May 15 was the second time that the levy, which was introduced in July 2022 in the form of a cess to tax supernormal gains of oil producers and fuel exporters, has been cut to nil for domestically produced oil.

ICRA expects govt collections to be Rs 1,500 cr for FY24

At these rates, ICRA expects government collections to be Rs 1,500 crore for FY2024 (April 2023 to March 2024), he said. The tax rates are reviewed every fortnight based on average oil prices in the previous two weeks.

The government's collection from the SAED, imposed on the production of crude oil and the export of petroleum products from July 1, 2022, is estimated at around Rs 40,000 crore in FY2023. Crude oil pumped out of the ground and from below the seabed is refined and converted into fuels like petrol, diesel, and aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1 last year, joining a growing number of nations that tax supernormal profits of energy companies. At that time, export duties of Rs 6 per litre (USD 12 per barrel) each were levied on petrol and ATF and Rs 13 a litre (USD 26 a barrel) on diesel.

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