A week after the Centre announced a cut of Rs 2.50 per litre in prices of petrol and diesel and urged states to match the reduction, official sources Friday confirmed that another meeting on fuel prices was being held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Petroleum Minister DharmendraPradhan.
On October 4, the Centre announced a cut of Rs 2.50 per litre for petrol and diesel prices, saying Rs 1.50 per litre of excise duty cut would be borne by it while the remaining Re 1 per litre cut would be absorbed by the oil marketing companies. Announcing the reduction, Jaitley appealed to state governments to match the Centre’s cut in fuel prices so that the total price cut would be Rs 5.00 per litre.
The decision to cut excise duty by Rs 1.50 per litre, Jaitley said, would cost the Centre Rs 10,500 crore this financial year. He, however, emphasised that the government remained committed to meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of the GDP for this financial year.
Comments are closed.