Govt slaps Rs 66,000 crore windfall tax on crude oil production; introduces export levy on petrol, diesel, ATF

Jul 1, 2022

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NEW DELHI: The federal government on Friday slapped an export tax on petrol and diesel after some refineries made “phenomenal earnings” delivery abroad at the price of home provides, and imposed a Rs 66,000 crore windfall tax on crude oil produced regionally.
A Rs 6 per litre tax on export of petrol and ATF and Rs 13 per litre tax on export of diesel is efficient from July 1, finance ministry notifications confirmed.
Moreover, a Rs 23,250 per tonne tax was levied on crude oil produced domestically, which eventually yr’s manufacturing stage of near 29 million tonnes interprets into annual income of Rs 66,000 crore to the federal government.
Assuming the pattern of exporting 5.7 million tonnes of diesel and a couple of.5 million tonnes of petrol within the first two months of the fiscal that started in April 2022 continues for the complete fiscal, the income from the windfall tax on crude and the export levy ought to neutralise the Rs 1 lakh crore hit the federal government took when it rolled again the pandemic-era hike in excise responsibility on petrol and diesel.
The export tax is to discourage corporations equivalent to Reliance Industries and Rosneft-based Nayara Vitality from preferring abroad markets over home provides.
Giving out causes for the introduction of the brand new levies, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned “phenomenal earnings” earned from irregular costs that refiners earned from delivery abroad led to the brand new taxes.
“We do not grudge individuals incomes earnings,” she mentioned. “But when oil is just not being out there (at petrol pumps) and they’re being exported… exported with such phenomenal earnings. We’d like a minimum of a few of it for our personal residents and that’s the reason we’ve got taken this twin-pronged strategy.”
“It isn’t to discourage exports, it’s not to discourage India as a refining hub. It’s definitely not in opposition to revenue incomes, however extraordinary occasions do require some such steps,” Sitharaman mentioned.
The windfall tax on oil producers was triggered by Oil and Pure Fuel Company (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) reporting bumper earnings within the March quarter (when worldwide costs soared to a close to 14-year excessive of $139 per barrel) and document earnings in 2021-22.
ONGC reported a document web revenue of Rs 40,306 crore on a income of Rs 1,10,345 crore within the 2021-22 fiscal. OIL posted Rs 3,887.31 crore web revenue within the fiscal. Vedanta’s Cairn Oil & Fuel, which is India’s second-largest oil producer, too had bumper earnings.
The brand new levy plus the oil business growth cess and royalty the producers at present pay will take the overall incidence of taxation to about 60 per cent of the oil worth.
A windfall tax is a one-off tax on corporations which have seen their earnings surge terribly not due to any intelligent funding choice they’ve taken or a rise in effectivity or innovation, however merely due to beneficial market circumstances.
Lately, the UK levied a 25 per cent tax on “extraordinary” earnings from North Sea oil and gasoline manufacturing to boost $6.3 billion.
The export tax follows oil refiners, significantly Reliance Industries and Rosneft-backed Nayara Vitality, making a killing in exporting gas to deficit areas equivalent to Europe and the US within the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
They’re mentioned to have processed Russian crude oil out there at a reduction after it was shunned by the West and exported gas produced from it to Europe and the US.
The federal government additionally framed new guidelines requiring oil corporations exporting petrol to promote within the home market the equal of fifty per cent of the quantity offered to abroad prospects for the fiscal yr ending March 31, 2023. For diesel, this requirement has been put at 30 per cent of the quantity exported.
These restrictions on export are additionally aimed toward shoring up home provides at petrol pumps, a few of which had dried up in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat as non-public refiners most well-liked exporting gas to promoting regionally.
Exports have been most well-liked as retail petrol and diesel costs by dominant PSU retailers have been capped at ranges method decrease than the associated fee. This meant that personal retailers, who management lower than 10 per cent of the market share, both promote gas at loss or lose market share in the event that they have been to promote at the next price.
Income Secretary Tarun Bajaj mentioned the export tax might be utilized uniformly on all exports from any refinery — be it a home unit or an only-for-exports (SEZ) facility. However the export restriction, mandating a certain quantity to be offered regionally, is not going to be relevant for SEZ items, he mentioned.
Reliance operates two refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat — one is a home tariff space facility whereas the opposite is an SEZ refinery. Nayara has a home tariff space unit at Vadinar in Gujarat.
The finance ministry, in a press release, mentioned crude costs have risen sharply in latest months which has benefited home producers who promote oil to home refineries at worldwide parity costs.
“Because of this, the home crude producers are making windfall positive aspects. Taking this under consideration, a cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne has been imposed on crude,” it mentioned. “Import of crude wouldn’t be topic to this cess.”
Small producers, whose annual manufacturing of crude within the previous monetary yr is lower than 2 million barrels, might be exempt from this new cess, the ministry mentioned.
“Additionally, to incentivise an extra manufacturing over the previous yr, no cess might be imposed on such amount of crude that’s produced in extra of final yr’s manufacturing by a crude producer.”
The ministry mentioned whereas crude costs have elevated sharply in latest months, the charges of diesel and petrol have proven a sharper improve.
“The refiners export these merchandise at globally prevailing costs, that are very excessive. As exports have gotten extremely remunerative, it has been seen that sure refiners are drying out their pumps within the home market,” it mentioned with out naming any firm.
In view of this, cesses equal to Rs 6 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel have been imposed on their exports. These cesses would apply to any export of diesel and petrol from the nation.
“These measures wouldn’t have any hostile affect on home retail costs of diesel and petrol. Thus, home retail costs would stay unchanged. On the similar time these measures will guarantee home availability of the petroleum merchandise,” it mentioned.
A particular extra excise responsibility (SAED) of Rs 6 per litre has been imposed on exports of Aviation Turbine Gasoline (ATF). Like diesel and petrol, the worldwide costs of ATF have risen sharply and so an extra responsibility has been imposed.



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