Government taxes oil exports to cut windfall gains of producers
The government on Friday slapped an export tax on petrol, diesel and jet fuel (ATF) shipped overseas by firms like Reliance Industries Ltd, and imposed a windfall tax on crude oil produced locally by companies such as ONGC and Vedanta Ltd.
The government imposed a Rs 6 per litre tax on export of petrol and ATF and Rs 13 per litre tax on export of diesel, finance ministry notifications showed.
Additionally, it levied a Rs 23,250 per tonne additional tax on crude oil produced domestically.
The levy on crude, which follows record earnings by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) and private sector Cairn Oil & Gas of Vedanta Ltd, alone will fetch the government Rs 67,425 crore annually on 29 million tonnes of crude oil produced domestically.
