The central government on Tuesday announced an increase in excise duty by a record Rs 13 for every litre of diesel and Rs 10 per litre of petrol in an attempt to shore up revenue as demand remains subdued due to the nationwide lockdown, PTI reported. However, officials said this will not result in an increase in retail prices for the consumers as state-owned oil firms will adjust the hike against the recent fall in oil prices.

In Delhi, petrol costs Rs 71.26 a litre and diesel is priced at Rs 69.39.

A Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs notification said the special additional excise duty on petrol has been raised by Rs 2 per litre and road cess has been increased by Rs 8 a litre. For diesel, special additional excise duty has been hiked by Rs 5 per litre and road cess has been raised by Rs 8 a litre. These changes come into effect from Wednesday.

“The revenue generated from these duties shall be used for infrastructure and other developmental item of expenditure,” an unidentified official told Mint. This would also help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

This is the second hike in excise duty on fuel in two months by the Narendra Modi-led government that comes after an increase in value added tax by several states over the last few days. On March 14, the government had raised the excise duty by Rs 3 a litre each for both petrol and diesel to garner about Rs 39,000 crore.

The tax on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014 and that on diesel was Rs 3.56 a litre.