Govt considering specific excise duty on ATF

With no sight of including jet fuel in Goods and Services Tax (GST) in near future, the government is considering levying specific rate of excise duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in place of current ad valorem rates to insulate its prices from cascading effect in times of volatile prices.

ATF presently is chargeable at 11 per cent ad valorem rate of excise duty.

Concessional rate of 2 per cent is applicable for ATF sold under Regional Connectivity Scheme. Ad valorem rate means that the impact of an increase in price of the fuel because of global rate hike translates into an even higher price for airlines as the tax incidence also rises.