Petrol Duty Returns, Diesel and ATF Levies Cut: What It Means

The Centre has announced changes in export taxes on petroleum products, introducing a special additional excise duty of Rs 3 per litre on petrol exports and lowering the levy on diesel exports to Rs 16.5 per litre from Saturday.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, the revised rates will come into immediate effect.

The government also reduced the road and infrastructure cess on petrol and diesel exports to zero. Domestic fuel tax rates have remained unchanged.

The fresh duty on petrol exports is the first such levy imposed since tensions escalated in West Asia. At the same time, export duties on diesel and aviation turbine fuel have been reduced after several revisions over recent months.

The diesel export duty has seen multiple changes this year. The levy stood at Rs 21.5 per litre on March 26 before being sharply increased to Rs 55.5 per litre on April 11. It was later reduced to Rs 23 per litre on April 30 and has now been cut further to Rs 16.5 per litre.

Aviation turbine fuel, or ATF, witnessed a similar trend. The export duty was initially fixed at Rs 29.5 per litre and later raised to Rs 42 per litre. It was subsequently brought down to Rs 33 per litre and has now been revised to Rs 16 per litre.

The windfall tax mechanism was introduced to maintain adequate domestic fuel supplies. It also aimed to regulate exports during fluctuations in global crude oil markets linked to the West Asia crisis.

Global geopolitical uncertainty continues after negotiations between the United States and Iran failed to produce a peace agreement.

US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s proposal and described it as ‘totally unacceptable’.

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