Petroleum Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to make excise rates uniform for different categories of domestic cooking gas (lPG), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.
There is no excise duty on a 14.2-kg of subsidised lPG cylinder, but a similar sized non-domestic bottle attracts 8 per cent levy. Besides, while a subsidised domestic cylinder is exempt from customs duty, a 5 per cent import duty is levied on non-domestic lPG cylinder.
“We have sought from Ministry of Finance a uniform tax pattern for all kinds of lPG customers,” Pradhan told reporters. lPG or domestic cooking gas, is sold in different pack sizes - 5 kg, 14.2 kg and 19 kg. A household customer is allowed 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each or 34 cylinders of 5 kg each during a year at subsidised rates. Any requirement beyond this has to be bought at market rate.
The subsidised lPG cylinders are exempt from excise as well as customs duty but not the other categories including 19-kg commercial cylinders. This anomaly has led to diversion or black-marketing of subsidised cylinders for other uses.