Traders claim that lowering the excise duty on gasoline and diesel would lower the cost of everyday items by at least 10%. The government announced an excise duty decrease of $8 per litre on gasoline and $6 per litre on diesel. This will lower the price of gasoline by 9.5 cents per litre and diesel by 7 cents per litre. The Confederation of all India traders (CAIT) opined that exemption in fuel prices will help reduce prices of everyday items.
“Similarly, prices of other commodities should also come down because the cost of transportation of raw materials will also be cheaper now which may cause lowering of prices,” the association suggested.
The Centre on Saturday announced several economic relief measures including the lowering the excise duty on petrol and diesel, subsidy for gas cylinders, among other such steps to counter high inflation.
“It is very important now to ensure that the big manufacturers should also bring down the prices of their products. It has been seen in the past that often the people of the country do not get the benefit of this type of reductions,” said Praveen Khandelwal, National Secretary General, CAIT.
CAIT said that 80% of movement of goods in the country is through road transport, which is driven by petrol and diesel.
