Budget 2018: No reduction in petrol prices despite reduction of excise duty

In the budget 2018 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the basic excise duty on petrol and diesel has been cut by two rupees per liter, but by raising the cess by Rs 2 in excise duty, there will be no change in the total excise duty.

The Budget presented in the Parliament on Thursday said that the original excise duty on open petrol will be reduced from Rs 6.48 to Rs 4.48 and open diesel will be reduced from 8.33 to 6.33 rupees per liter. However the cess has has been increased from six rupees to eight rupees. Now its name will be road and infrastructure cess. Thus there is no change in the total excise duty. The excise duty on branded petrol has been reduced from Rs 7.66 to Rs 5.66 and branded diesel has been reduced from Rs 10.69 to Rs 8.69 per liter.

With the daily rising prices of petrol and diesel in the country, it was hoped that the government could give relief to people by cutting excise duty on them. Changes made in the original excise duty and cess will not provide any relief to the common people, but more of this will be used for road and highway construction.