Amidst rising energy prices and inflation, the Central excise duty on petrol has been cut by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre, reducing the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
“Today, the world is passing through difficult times. Even as the world is recovering from Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods. This is resulting in inflation & economic distress in a lot of countries,” she said in a series of tweets.
The duty cut will have revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh crore per year for the government.
Sitharaman went on say that despite the challenging international situation, the government has ensured that there are no shortages or scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn’t escape some shortages or disruptions, she added.
The government is committed to ensuring that prices of essential items are kept under control, she said.
She said: “I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.”
In yet another major move, the government has decided that this year it will give a subsidy of Rs 200 per gas cylinder (upto 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
“This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around Rs 6,100 crore a year.”
Further, it is also reducing the customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for plastic products where the country’s import dependence is high. It will result in reduction of cost of final products.
A notification with specific details on all these mention moves will be issued by the Centre within the next hours.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
