Govt earned over ₹3.71 lakh cr in FY21 from VAT on petrol, diesel: Sitharaman

The central government earned more than ₹3.71 lakh crore in fiscal 2020-21 alone from taxes on petrol and diesel, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament on Tuesday. This would reach a total of ₹8.02 crore lakh crore if the amount earned in the last three fiscals from taxes is calculated.

The excise duty or value added tax (VAT) on petrol was hiked from ₹19.48 per litre as on October 5, 2018, to ₹27.90 as on November 4, 2021. During the same period, the VAT on diesel rose from ₹15.33 per litre to ₹21.80, the finance minister said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"The central excise duties, including cesses collected from petrol and diesel, during the last three years are - ₹2,10,282 crore in 2018-19; ₹2,19,750 crore in 2019-20 and ₹3,71,908 crore in 2020-21," Sitharaman informed Parliament.

Between October 2018 and July 2019, the excise duty on both fuels, however, witnessed a dip. The VAT on petrol dropped from ₹19.48 per litre as of October 5, 2018, to ₹17.98 as of July 6, 2019. The excise duty on the equal quantity of diesel decreased from ₹15.33 to 13.83 during the same period.

Since February 2, 2021, VAT on both fuels have been seeing an upward swing before the Centre on November 3 -- a day before this year's Diwali -- announced a slash in the amount. Excise duty on petrol was reduced by ₹5 a litre, while it was cut by ₹10 a litre on diesel.

Several states, with a majority being the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled ones such as Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Gujarat, among others, announced cuts in excise duty on petrol and diesel on November 3 itself. Towards the end of the previous month, non-BJP states, including Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, also slashed VAT on petrol and diesel prices.