New Delhi: A day after Government announced excise duty cut in petrol and diesel prices, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the reduction has entirely been made in road and infrastructure cess (RIC).
In other words, the Finance Minister made it clear that the excise duty cut burden has been borne entirely by the Centre.

She said that even in November 2021, the excise duty reduction of Rs 5 per litre in petrol and Rs 10 per litre in diesel was entirely made in RIC.

1/ Good to see the interest generated by @PMOIndia @narendramodi ‘s decision yesterday to bring an Excise Duty cut on petrol and diesel.

Sharing some useful facts.

‘am sure criticism/appraisal can benefit from having them before us.

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 22, 2022

“Basic excise duty (BED), special additional excise duty (SAED), RIC and agriculture & infrastructure development cess (AIDC) together constitute excise duty on petrol and diesel,” she said in a tweet.

“Basic excise duty is sharable with states while SAED, RIC and AIDC are non-sharable,” the Finance Minister tweeted.

“Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data shows total developmental expenditure incurred by the PM Narendra Modi-led Government during 2014-22 was Rs 90.9 lakh crore. In contrast, only Rs 49.2 lakh crore was spent on developmental expenditure during 2004-2014,” Ms Sitharaman said in another tweet.

Government on May 21 had reduced excise duty on petrol by ₹ 8 per litre and by ₹ 6 per litre on diesel in a move to combat rising inflation.