The Government today announced the hike in fuel prices which will be Rs 5 per litre in case of petrol, Rs 3 per litre of diesel and Rs 50 on a LPG cylinder. Briefing the Cabinet today, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora also announced that the excise duty on petrol and diesel will be cut by Rs 1 per litre. Customs duty on crude oil is also reduced from the present five to zero per cent while the custom duty on petrol and diesel is reduced to 2.5 per cent from the existing 7.5 per cent. Deora also said that the duty on other petroleum products like aviation fuel has been reduced from 10 to 5 per cent. Because of these duty cuts the government revenues will come down by Rs 22,660 crore in the remaining 10 months of the financial year, the minister said. At the same time, because of these duty cuts the oil compaines' under recoveries will come down by Rs 21,000 crore. And with the hike in the fuel prices announced today, under recoveries of these companies will further come down by Rs 21,123 crore, Deora said. Upstream oil companies such as ONGC and GAIL will bear Rs 45,000 crore of the under recoveries in the current fiscal as compared with Rs 26,000 crore last year.
