NEW DELHI: The government increased excise duty on petrol by 0.30 per litre and by 1.17 a litre on diesel to make use of slump in oil prices to garner an additional 2,500 crore.

Basic excise duty on unbranded petrol has been increased from 7.06 per litre to 7.36 and the same on unbranded diesel from 4.66 to 5.83 per litre.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the increase in duty will yield an additional 2,500 crore in revenue during the remainder of the 2015-16 fiscal which ends on March 31, 2016.

After including additional and special excise duty, the total levy on unbranded petrol will be 19.36 per litre as against 19.06 currently.

Similarly, on unbranded or normal diesel, total excise duty after including special excise duty will be 11.83 per litre as compared to 10.66 now.

Basic excise duty on branded petrol has been raised from Rs 8.24 per litre to Rs 8.54 a litre and the same on branded diesel from 7.02 to 8.19 per litre.

This is the second increase in excise duty in less than six weeks. The government had on November 7 raised excise duty on petrol by 1.60 per litre and on diesel by 30 paise a litre.

In anticipation of the hike, oil companies had yesterday announced decrease in petrol price by just 50 paise a litre and by 46 paise on diesel even though oil rates slumping to multi-year low warranted a bigger cut.

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