Talking about the alarming inflation in the country, how one can forget the higher prices of petroleum products as the government is busy in collecting money from the people by increasing the rate of levies, taxes and duties, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.

And this state of affairs is revealed by official documents which show the percentage of revenue collected on the basis of every litre purchased by the consumers with effect from Oct 1.

So the government is collecting Rs55.04 on per litre petrol in levies, taxes and duties. The same amount for high-speed diesel, kerosene and light-speed diesel is Rs58.29, Rs24.73 and Rs20.56 respectively.

Meanwhile, the procurement price of petrol is Rs48.93 per litre but the consumers have been forced to buy the same after paying Rs103.97.

The details for the remaining three fuels are: high-speed diesel – procurement price Rs45.77, retail price Rs104.06; kerosene procurement price Rs40.56, retail price Rs65.29; light-speed diesel – procurement price Rs42.30, retail price Rs62.86. 

Further study of these taxes, levies and duties show that the petroleum levy imposed on high-speed diesel has been increased to Rs30. Other amounts charged from the consumers for buying this fuel are: Rs3.12 dealer commission, Rs2.61 OMC (oil marketing company) margin and Rs0.96 inland freight margin.

In the case of petrol, the levy currently stands at Rs27.32 along with sales tax Rs15.11, dealer commission Rs3.70, OMC margin Rs2.81, inland freight margin Rs3.53 and customs duty Rs2.57.

As far as the kerosene is concerned, the people are paying Rs9.49 in sales tax besides other categories of revenue.

The petroleum levy and sales tax imposed on per litre of light-speed diesel is now at Rs8.44 and Rs9.13 respectively.

On Wednesday last, the government kept the petrol price unchanged while reduced the price of high-speed diesel by Rs2.40/litre for the next 15 days starting from Thursday last. The prices of kerosene oil and LDO were also kept unchanged.

After the latest decision, the petrol price will remain unchanged at Rs103.97/litre, while diesel was reduced to Rs104.06/litre from Rs106.46 per litre earlier. The kerosene price will remain at Rs65.29 and LDO at Rs62.86/litre for the next 15 days.