Taking advantage of the current slump in global oil prices, the government on Wednesday raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 0.30 per litre and on diesel by Rs 1.17 a litre, PTI reported. This hike will earn the government an additional Rs 2,500 crore in revenue during the rest of the 2015-16 fiscal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

While basic excise duty on unbranded petrol was increased from Rs 7.06 to Rs 7.36 per litre, that on unbranded diesel was hiked from Rs 4.66 to Rs 5.83 per litre. With the inclusion of additional and special excise duty, the total levy on unbranded petrol comes to Rs 19.36 per litre as against the current Rs 19.06, while that on unbranded diesel totals Rs 11.83 per litre, higher than the earlier Rs 10.66.

Similarly, basic excise duty on branded petrol will now be Rs 8.24 per litre, up from Rs 8.54, and the same on branded diesel was increased from Rs 7.02 to Rs 8.19 per litre.

Having foreseen this hike, oil companies had lowered the price of petrol by 50 paise a litre and of diesel by 46 paise on Tuesday, despite facing a significant drop in oil rates for several years.

On November 7, the government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 1.60 per litre and on diesel by 30 paise a litre. This move had earned it an additional Rs 3,200 crore. In 2014-15, the government had earned Rs 99,184 crore in excise collections from the petroleum sector, while in the first quarter of the current fiscal, it earned Rs 33,042 crore.