Question : Prices of Petroleum Products

(a) whether the Government has kept petrol and diesel out of the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and if so, the reasons therefor;
(b) the details of increase/decrease in the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and other petroleum products including break up of taxes during the last three years and the current year along with the criteria/policy to fix price of petroleum products in the country, product-wise;
(c) the price at which the crude oil was imported during the said period, year-wise along with the average difference in prices of petrol and diesel in view of the price of imported crude oil;
(d) whether the crude oil prices witnessed a drop of around eight to nine percent during January and February 2018 in the international market and if so, the details thereof along with the quantum of crude oil imported during the said period and steps taken to provide relief to consumers in view of fall in prices of crude oil in the international market; and
(e) whether the Government/State Governments propose to reduce taxes/ excise duty on petrol and diesel and fix uniform price of petrol and diesel across the country and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken to implement the said proposal and provide relief to the common people?

MINISTER OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a): Clause 12 A of Article 366 of the Constitution defines ‘goods and services tax’ (GST) as “any tax on supply of goods or services or both except taxes on the supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption”. Further Article 279 A (5) provides that Goods and Services Tax Council shall recommend the date on which goods and services tax shall be levied on petroleum crude, high speed
diesel, motor spirit, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel. Thus while petroleum products are included under goods and services tax, the date on which GST shall be levied on such products shall be as per decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council.
(b): Prices of Petrol and Diesel have been made market-determined effective 26.06.2010 and 19.10.2014 respectively. Since then, the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) take appropriate decision on pricing of Petrol and Diesel in line with international product prices and other market conditions. The Government continues to modulate the effective price to consumer for Subsidized Domestic LPG and Retail Selling Price (RSP) of PDS Kerosene.
The details of increase/decrease in the prices of Petrol, Diesel, LPG and PDS Kerosene during the last three years and the current year are given at Annexure I.
Central Government is levying Customs duty at the rate of 2.5% on Petrol and Diesel. The Customs duty on Domestic LPG and PDS Kerosene is nil. The current Excise Duty on Petrol and Diesel is Rs.19.48/litre and 15.33/litre respectively. At present, applicable GST on Domestic LPG and PDS Kerosene is 5%.
State wise effective rate of taxes on petrol and diesel as on 01.03.2018 is given as Annexure -II.
(c) &(d): Details of Crude oil imports in terms of quantity and value (Rs. Crores), during the last three years and current year, are given below:-
Period
Qty.(TMT)
Value
Rs. Crore
2014-15
189,435
687,416
2015-16
202,850
416,579
2016-17
213,932
470,159
2017-18 (Apr-Jan)^
184,448
459,561
` ^Provisional
The price of Indian basket of crude oil during the period December 2017 to February 2018 is given below:-
Period
$/bbl
December, 2017
62.29
January, 2018
67.06
February, 2018
63.54
Prices of Petrol and Diesel have been made market-determined effective 26.06.2010 and 19.10.2014 respectively. Since then, the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) take appropriate decision on pricing of Petrol and Diesel in line with international product prices and other market conditions. The details of prices of Petrol and Diesel have already been provided in Annexure-I
(e): With an aim to reduce the prices of Petrol and Diesel and give relief to the consumers, the Central Government reduced the Central Excise duty on Petrol and Diesel by Rs.2 per litre effective from 4th October, 2017. The Central Government also requested the State Governments to reduce
VAT imposed by them on Petrol and Diesel so as to give more relief to the consumers. Accordingly, four State Governments and one Union Territory have reduced the VAT on Petrol and Diesel.
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