The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has condemned the Centre and the State governments for increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel and road infrastructure cess. The Chamber has urged the governments to bring down fuel prices with immediate effect and bring all petroleum products within the ambit of GST, like other products.

According to a statement, the Chamber said the move was shocking as international crude oil prices had witnessed an unprecedented steep fall. The COVID-19 pandemic had already affected various sectors. In the view of steep fall in crude oil price from 70 Dollar per barrel to 30 Dollar per barrel, it was expected that domestic petrol and diesel prices would be cut down by at least ₹20 per litre. However, there is an increase in the excise dutyated.

The Central Board Indirect Taxes and Customs had all of a sudden levied special additional excise duty of ₹ 2 per litre on petrol and road infrastructure tax of ₹ 8 per litre on petrol and ₹ 5 per litre special additional excise duty and ₹ 8 per litre road infrastructure tax on diesel. This was the second time that the Central Government had opted for an increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel since last March. VAT on petrol and diesel was increased by ₹ 3.25 per litre on petrol and ₹2.50 per litre on diesel recently.

The increase in prices of petroleum products at this juncture would result in an increase in prices of all essential goods and compound the problems of people. Therefore, the Central and State governments should immediately withdraw the rise in excise duty and road infrastructure cess.