The Centre on Wednesday slashed the windfall tax levied on the export of petrol, diesel and jet fuel shipments as well as domestically produced crude oil after global oil prices softened, PTI reported. On July 1, the Union finance ministry had levied the charges.

A windfall tax is a one-time fee imposed on a company whose profits have surged extraordinarily due to favourable market conditions.

According to a government notification, the tax on the shipments of diesel and jet fuel was reduced by Rs 2 per litre each. After the revision, a tax of Rs 11 will be levied on diesel and Rs 4 on jet fuel.

The government added that it had scrapped an export tax of 6 rupees a litre on petrol.

It also exempted an additional excise duty on fuel exports of units located in the special economic zones, the Economic Times reported.

“Central government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the excisable goods, when exported from units located in the Special Economic Zone,” a notification said.

The tax on domestically produced crude oil was also reduced to Rs 17,000 per tonne from Rs 23,250 rupees.

The changes will help state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Vedanta Limited as well as top fuel exporter Reliance Industries.