The petrol price has gone all time high at Rs 90 a litre in Kashmir — seeing an unprecedented hike of Rs 33 in one year. The price of diesel per litre has breached Rs 80 mark.
As per the official figures, the government is charging 24 percent tax on its invoice value, Rs 5 cess per litre on petrol, and now an additional agricultural cess levied on it.
“On an average, a consumer is paying more than Rs 40 per petrol litre on taxes; same is the case with the diesel on which consumer pays above Rs 30 on account of various taxes,” said a senior finance department official.
As per the executives of oil market companies, the price of petrol in Kashmir has reached the all-time high with the rate of taxes too having reached its high.
As per the dealers, the petrol is being sold at Rs 90.03 a litre and diesel above Rs 80 a litre. “Since last year, the petrol prices have increased by Rs 33 a litre,” said an OMC executive.
The soaring petrol prices are hitting the consumers badly. “I have stopped using my car,” said Ajaz Ahmad, a local businessman who complains slump in general business.
In the recently presented union budget for 2021-22, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman “imposed Rs 2.5 per litre agri cess on petrol and Rs 4 a litre on diesel”. But this was offset by an equivalent reduction in excise duty.
As of now, a basic excise duty (BED) of Rs 2.98 per litre is levied on petrol, and another Rs 12 a litre is charged as special additional excise duty (SAED) and Rs 18 as road and infrastructure cess. To accommodate the agri cess, the BED was cut to Rs 1.4 and SAED to Rs 11.
Similarly, on diesel, BED was cut from Rs 4.83 to Rs 1.8 a litre and SAED to Rs 8 from Rs 9 per litre.
The government had last year hiked excise duty by Rs 13 and Rs 16 per litre to mop up benefits arising from falling international oil prices.