On Fuel Price Cut, Nirmala Sitharaman's Before-2014-And-After Comparison
NDTV
Amid allegations by opposition parties that the recent slash in excise duty was "jugglery of figures" to "dupe" people, the Finance Minister hit back.
As the Centre and opposition parties call each other out on the recent cut in central excise duty on fuel, with the latter accusing the government of "duping" people by "jugglery of figures", Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today hit back with a clarification. Congress, and some other opposition parties, had alleged that the Narendra Modi-led government had slashed excise duty which is shared by states, thus not really making a big effort in bringing down prices of petrol, diesel, and cooking gas. Ms Sitharaman, in a series of tweets, explained that the excise duty component that has been slased not shareable by the state and the Centre bears the full cost. She also pointed to comparative data on developmental expenditure and subsidies to claim that the PM Modi-led government has spent much more in the last 8 years than what the Congress-led UPA did in the 10-years it was in power. 2/Basic Excise Duty (BED), Special Additional Excise duty (SAED),Road & Infrastructure Cess (RIC) and Agriculture & Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC) together constitute Excise Duty on petrol and diesel.Basic ED is sharable with states.SAED,RIC & AIDC are non-sharable.
"Basic Excise Duty (BED), Special Additional Excise duty (SAED),Road & Infrastructure Cess (RIC) and Agriculture & Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC) together constitute Excise Duty on petrol and diesel...Basic ED is sharable with states...SAED,RIC & AIDC are non-sharable.
The excise duty reduction of Rs 8/litre on petrol and Rs 6/litre on diesel (effective from today) has entirely been made in Road & Infrastructure Cess (RIC)," she said in one of the tweets.
