Taxes now make up 70 per cent of fuel retail prices

Mumbai / New Delhi: Taxes now comprise up to 70% of retail prices of petrol and diesel in the country after Tuesday’s duty hike by the central government that cut oil companies’ record-high fuel marketing margin by three-fourths.

Central and state governments, starved of revenue due to a nationwide lockdown, are increasingly resorting to fuel tax hikes to capture most gains from a global oil crash that began early March, leaving little benefits to the consumers.

A central excise duty hike of Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel along with an increase in value-added tax by the Delhi government on Tuesday took the share of taxes in retail prices to 70% in the national capital.