No room to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel, says FM Sitharaman

On inflation, FM said she expected the retail price inflation rate to remain in the range mandated by the Monetary Policy Committee

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the Centre had little room to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel because of the cost burden of the oil bonds issued by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

“We don’t do so many tricks like the UPA government. They issued oil bonds for which the principal amount is over Rs 1 trillion, and for the last seven fiscals, the government has been paying over Rs 9,000 crore interest annually,” Sitharaman said in a select media briefing. “This government is paying for the oil price reduction of 2012-2013. If I did not