Govt’s greed for revenue keeps petrol, diesel prices close to all-time high levels

Oil companies may have provided relief to consumers by keeping the pump prices of petrol and diesel static for the past nine days even on rising global oil prices, but it is the heavy load of taxes that has kept the two auto fuels price closer to all-time high levels now with the pandemic-affected revenue stream preventing the government from considering a duty cut.

Taxes and duties now account for 62.5 per cent of the retail price of petrol and 57.77 per cent of the retail price of diesel in the capital at current level of pump prices.

The taxes component has fallen over the fortnight as global price of petrol and diesel has also risen in past few days. Otherwise taxes were well over 70 per cent of the retail price of petrol till the start of the month.

What the higher level of taxes means is that the bulk of the retail price a common man pays to get fuel is tax and if the government would not have targeted petrol and diesel to raise revenue every time there is a pressing need for it, the fuel prices in India today would have mirrored retail prices prevailing decades ago (in 2003) and closer to what consumers in oil-rich countries in the Gulf pay.

The current state tax (VAT) rate on petrol and diesel has risen to Rs 19.32 and Rs 10.85 per litre, respectively, in Delhi.