On Tuesday, the Union government decided to withdraw the state specific surcharge (SSS) on fuel, thereby bringing down prices.The state government announced that scrapping of the levy would result in the prices of diesel and petrol dropping by Rs 1.35 and 60 paise per litre respectively from Tuesday. Dealers said that corresponding cuts in various taxes and surcharges necessitated due to the reduction and daily changes in global crude prices, the actual drop for in Mumbai was Rs 1.77 on petrol and Rs 1.66 per litre on diesel.
Oil companies recovered the surcharge from consumers for payment of octroi to the municipal corporations in various cities. The reduction should have taken place immediately after the goods and services tax (GST) came into effect. Mumbaikars shell out the highest for petrol and diesel in the country. Ravi Shinde of the Petrol Dealers’ Association said the price of petrol on Monday was Rs 75.04 and it dropped to Rs 73.27 on Tuesday, while diesel price on Tuesday stood at Rs 58.27 per litre against Rs 59.93 on Monday. “The price reduction would benefit all cities and towns that charged octroi on fuel. But for Mumbai and Maharashtra, the quantum of relief is bigsince the amount of surcharge on fuel against octroi payment was higher in cities of Maharashtra than anywhere else in the country,” said Uday Lodh of Federation of All-Maharashtra Petrol Dealers’ Associations.
