In a rather surprising announcement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech, petrol and diesel prices are set to be hiked by Rs 2.
“I propose to increase Special Additional Excise duty and Road and Infrastructure Cess each by one rupee a litre on petrol and diesel,” Sitharaman said in her speech.
She said that the decision comes on the back of softening of crude oil prices, which gives the government “room to review excise duty and cess on petrol and diesel”.
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Increase in price of fuel generally has a cascading effect and is thus expected to hit all sections of the population.
Gold Gets Expensive Too
Besides fuel price, buying gold too is going to get more expensive for people. The budget has proposed an increase of custom duty on gold and other precious metals from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.
Following the announcement, leading bullion stocks took a hit in afternoon trade with PC Jeweller falling 4 percent and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri slipping 4.5 percent.
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