(ET)
Oil refiners Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) Thursday said they will contest tax authorities demand for over Rs 4,000 crore in excise duty on ethanol used for doping petrol, saying the sugarcane extract for mixing in fuel is exempt from tax.
The Director-General of GST in Pune has slapped IOC, the country’s biggest oil firm, with a tax demand of Rs 4,002 crore for alleged non-payment of excise duty on ethanol mixed in petrol. HPCL has been asked to pay over over Rs 346 crore.
In a regulatory filing, IOC said it is a responsible corporate and law abiding entity, which is one of the largest contributors to the national exchequer in the form of duties and taxes. During 2018-19, it paid Rs 1.93 lakh crore to the exchequer in the form of duties and taxes.
