The government on Friday hiked the basic excise duty on petrol by Rs 1.60 a litre and on diesel by 40 paise a litre to mop up additional revenue to meet budgetary targets, reported the Press Trust of India. After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on petrol will be Rs 19.06 a litre as against the current Rs 17.46.

The government had earlier raised excise duty on petrol and diesel between November 2014 and January 2015 in four installments. The four excise duty hikes over the three months had cumulatively been Rs 7.75 a litre on petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre on diesel. The move had accrued Rs 20,000 crore in additional revenue to the government, helping it meet its fiscal deficit target.

One of the four hikes had also been to fund the “ambitious infrastructure development programme” undertaken in the fiscal year 2015-16, which included 15,000 kilometres of road construction.