Petrol Stop - Petrol, diesel to go dearer by Rs 2.71 and Rs 2.55/l from midnight

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Petrol, diesel to go dearer by Rs 2.71 and Rs 2.55/l from midnight

Friday, 26 February 2010

26 Feb 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Petrol price will increase by Rs 2.71 a litre and diesel by Rs 2.55 per litre from midnight tonight after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised customs and excise duties on the two auto fuels in the Budget. Petrol price in Delhi will go up from Rs 44.72 to Rs 47.43 a litre and diesel to Rs 35.47 a litre, as indirect tax proposals moved in the Budget come into effect immediately. This followed customs duty on petrol and diesel being hiked to 7.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent and excise duty being raised by Re one a litre to Rs 14.35 and Rs 4.60 per litre on non-branded (normal) petrol and diesel respectively. "Oil marketing companies are not in a position to absorb these (incidence of increased taxation) and are passing them on to consumers, resulting in increase in petrol and diesel price," Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan told reporters here. The entire Opposition walked out of Lok Sabha when the Finance Minister announced the hike in taxation terming it as anti-people and a measure that will fuel inflation. Mukherjee also imposed 5 per cent import duty on crude (currently nil), a move that would increase the input cost of refiners like Reliance Industries and Essar Oil. The rate hike virtually put the Kirit Parikh report on fuel pricing reforms in cold storage as implementing its recommendation of freeing petrol and diesel prices would mean a further Rs 4.94 a litre increase in petrol and Rs 3.20 per litre hike in diesel rates.