New Delhi, April 29 (Inditop.com) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Thursday justified the hike in excise and customs duties on crude oil and petroleum products because of the global situation and said he had taken a “correct” stand by not touching retail prices.
“Instead of duties, I could have taken the administered price mechanism route. But I did not do so because to me it would not have been correct,” the minister said in his final reply to the debate on the Finance Bill for the current fiscal in the Lok Sabha.
He said it was because of hiking the duties that the state governments would get a 32 percent share of the measure, amounting to Rs.26,000 crore, based on the formulae for sharing of central revenues.
The minister’s comments came against the backdrop of cut motions moved by opposition parties on the demands of grants of the oil ministry, basically expressing displeasure over hikes in duties. The cut motions were defeated Tuesday.
In the budget speech delivered Feb 26, Mukherjee had proposed to restore the basic duty of 5 percent on crude oil, 7.5 percent each on diesel and petrol, and 5 percent on other petroleum products. He also proposed sought to hike excise on petrol and diesel by Rs.1.
