On Wednesday morning (May 6) people were likely to wake up to the petrol price hikes revised and announced by the Central Govt on Tuesday night(May 5).

Price hike

The Indian Central Govt have raised the excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and on diesel by 13 per litre and these new price hikes is on effect from today(May 6,2020). The Officials of Central asserts that, they have made such a hike in petrol and diesel to balance the loss of revenue the Central Govt faced during two phases of lockdown.

The Central Govt also explained that the raise in the tax structure or excise duty won’t disturb the retail sale price of petrol, diesel. An official said that, revenue these duties generate shall be used to develop infrastructure and to meet expenditure.

Experts assert that, the Central Govt’s decision was following the decision made by Delhi govt which raised the Value-Added-Tax(VAT) to petrol and diesel to generate money for the governmental purposes. CM Aravind Kejriwal made the announcement about the petrol and diesel price hike as, price of petrol by Rs 1.67 per litre to Rs 71.26 and diesel, by Rs 7.10 to Rs 69.39. Though, this decision of Kejriwal was criticized by other political parties there is some realization that such price hike could be the only way to generate money for government amid lockdown.

Do you know?
According to reports, Re 1 per litre increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel means that, Rs 14,500 crore is added into annual revenue for the government additionally.

Earlier the announcement from Central govt, the state of Punjab announced that there will price hike of Rs 2 per litre over each petrol and diesel.

Price hike in Telangana

Telangana CM Chandrasekhar Rao made a series of announcements from yesterday evening. The important decisions announced were:

• there is a 16% price hike to the price of liquor sold through-out the state.
• considering the pandemic, Telangana CM announced early today that the lockdown in the state is extended till May 29 which would have been ended by May 17.
• Telangana is the first Indian state to make this announcement and experts says that other states will be definitely follow this decision about lockdown extension.

Price hike in Tamil Nadu

On Sunday(May 3,2020), Tamil Nadu govt announced that they have revised the VAT for petrol and diesel. With the revised VAT, petrol prices have increased by Rs 3.25 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.50 per litre. According to today’s announcement from TN govt, followed by the price hike in fuel, Govt also posses price hike in liquor which will be sold in the state run wine shops tomorrow(May 7). The excise duty on Indian made and foreign liquor by 15% which means Rs 10 for normal brand and Rs 20 for premium brand per 180ml bottle.

Price hike in Karnataka

The Karnataka Govt also have announced about 11% price hike in excise duty which is an addition of 6% already announced in the budget.

Price hike for second time

On March 14, the Central had raised duties on petrol and diesel to Rs 3 per litre. That hike had raised the total central levies on petrol to Rs 22.98 per litre and on diesel to Rs 18.83 per litre. The retail price of the fuel had, however, remained unchanged because of the decline in crude prices. And this price hike of petrol and diesel price happens to be the second time in a row during lockdown.