GUWAHATI: The Assam government’s move to hike retail fuel prices has been triggered by the apprehension that the monthly royalty from public sector undertakings such as Oil India Limited and ONGC could come down drastically in the wake of a steep fall in global crude prices.
Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that there was a concern that the state could take a big hit in terms of its monthly royalty from the two PSUs triggered by a drastic fall in international crude prices.
“Besides, we wanted to cover some of the losses as fuel purchase by consumers has come down drastically owing to the lockdown. The pain has to be borne by all. However, this is a temporary measure and we will have a review once the situation improves,” Sarma said.
The state government had issued a notification on Tuesday increasing taxation on fuel following which the retail price of petrol increased from Rs 71.61 to Rs 77.46 per litre and that of diesel from Rs 65.07 to Rs 70.50 per litre.
“Our monthly due as royalty earlier was Rs 166 crore. But now we might get around Rs 50 crore and so we are trying to protect our revenue by hiking the prices,” he said.
