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Government collected INR5.2t from petroleum sector in FY17
Petroleum products unlikely to be included under GST even at a later stage
29 June 2017
The Economy Observer
It is generally argued that the states appealed to keep key petroleum products out of the GST ambit, citing them as
their main source of income. However, the center’s dependence on petroleum products is just as high. Also, it is the
central government that has played with prices in recent years.
In FY17, the central government collected INR3.35t from the petroleum sector, amounting to 16% of gross receipts,
while the state governments received INR1.89t – 16% of their own receipts. Further, the central tax on diesel and
petrol (per liter) increased 4x and 2x, respectively over the past three years. State taxes, on the other hand, increased
by just ~20%, even lower than the increase in dealer commissions.
Considering consumers’ welfare, bringing retail fuel products under GST would be favorable, as they are probably the
highest taxed items. However, the inclusion of excluded petroleum products under GST would have hurt the center
more than the states. Who would then push to include excluded petroleum products under GST at a later stage?
The Goods & Services Tax (GST) will be implemented from July 1, 2017. One of the
major compromises made to make GST a reality was the exclusion of petroleum
products#. Though it is generally believed that states had appealed to exclude
petroleum products, we argue that the center would have lost higher revenues had
all petroleum products been brought under GST.
Contribution of petroleum sector to the government(s)
As per recent data released by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC), the
The general government
central government collected INR3.34t from the petroleum sector in FY17, of which
(center + states) collected
INR2.4t was collected as excise duty. Further, the state governments collected
INR5.22t from the
petroleum sector,
another INR1.88t from the petroleum sector, majority of which was in the form of
accounting for 16% of all
sales tax/VAT on petroleum products
(Exhibit 1).
Overall, the general government
total receipts in FY17 – the
(center + states) collected INR5.22t from the petroleum sector, accounting for 16%
highest in a decade
of all total receipts in FY17 – the highest in a decade
(Exhibit 2).
Exhibit 1:
Total receipts from the petroleum sector for the
center and states (INR b)
5,600
4,200
2,800
1,400
0
Center
States
17.4 16.8
Exhibit 2:
Center’s receipts from petroleum sector have
increased disproportionately (% of gross receipts)
General government
14.9
14.6 14.4 14.9 14.0 15.0 14.0
13.7 13.6
16.0
Source: PPAC, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), CEIC, MoSL
# Please note only five products – crude oil, natural gas, aviation fuel, patrol & diesel – have been excluded, while other products such as kerosene,
naphtha and LPG are included under GST. However, since no product-wise break-up is available, we discuss the total contribution of the petroleum
sector to the governments in this note.
Nikhil Gupta
(Nikhil.Gupta@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5405
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