Budget 2019: Petrol, diesel to get costlier by Rs 2 per litre

The prices of petrol and diesel are set to go up by Rs 2 per litre as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a hike in special additional excise duty (SAED) and Road & Infrastructure Cess by Rs 1 per litre each.

“I propose to increase special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess each one by 1 rupee a litre on petrol and diesel,” she said while presenting the first Budget of the Modi government in its second term.

At present, motorists shell out Rs 7 per litre of SAED on both branded and un-branded petrol and Rs 1 per litre on diesel. Further, Road and Infrastructure Cess of Rs 8 per litre is levied on both petrol and diesel.

Petrol and diesel prices remain unchanged across the country for the third consecutive day on Friday. In Mumbai, the price of one litre of petrol today stood at Rs 76.15 while that of diesel was Rs 67.40.

In comparison, the prices stood at Rs 70.51 for petrol and Rs 64.33 for diesel in the national capital.

Other Announcements

The customs duty on gold was also increased to 12.5 percent from the existing 10 percent and surcharges on individuals having taxable income of Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore; and Rs 5 crore and more were also raised, Sitharaman said.

She also said there will be no merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on digital transaction made at big establishments having an annual turnover of more than Rs 50 crore.

The finance minister also announced TDS (tax deducted at source) of 2 percent on cash withdrawal of more than Rs 1 crore from a bank account.

Faceless assessment of tax returns in electronic mode is being launched this year in a phased manner, she said.