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Six excise duty increases on petrol and diesel since November 2014 may have added Rs 25,700 crore to the government kitty, but  consumers   are no less rich. Largely automobile owners, consumers together gained a little over Rs 60,000 crore from lower petrol and diesel prices in the first seven months of the current financial year. On an annualised basis, the total hike in excise duty can add Rs 92,915 crore to the government kitty based on 19.1 million tonnes of petrol and 69.4 million tonnes of diesel Indians burnt last financial year. The total increase in excise duty has been Rs 9.65 a litre for petrol and Rs 7.97 a litre for diesel. This could have directly translated into reductions in retail prices but the government decided to use the fall in global prices to allow state-owned oil refiners to partially pass on the benefit through periodic price cuts.   The savings to consumers on account of lower prices came despite higher consumption of both fuels. B...

Diesel engine ban  :The Supreme Court order on Wednesday not only banned registration of diesel vehicles with engine capacity of over 2000cc until March 31, 2016, it also cleared the air on registration of smaller diesel vehicles. Recently, the National Green Tribunal ordered a ban on the registration of all diesel cars in Delhi. The green court had also asked the government to stop buying diesel cars in the national capital. The NGT was to review these provisional orders on January 6, 2016. But now that the Supreme Court order is out, NGT’s earlier directions have been overruled. The Bench of the apex court clarified it in as many words: “notwithstanding any order to the contrary passed by any court or authority or Tribunal whatsoever.” However, buyers of small diesel cars will have to pay higher pollution tax from next year. The quantum of such pollution tax is likely to be decided at the Supreme Court’s next hearing on January 5, 2016. Automobile industry has welcomed the ...