The price of petrol is more than aviation turbine fuel in India due to the record excise duty levied by the government on the fuel.
If you are on a budget and were planning to drive down to a destination; you might want to consider flying options instead. With prices revised recently, petrol now costs more than Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) due to the record excise duty levied on the fuel used in cars and two-wheelers. At present, petrol costs Rs. 58.91/- per litre which is Rs. 6.49/- more expensive than ATF that costs Rs. 52.42/- per litre.
The difference in the quality between petrol and ATF is the reason why the former’s expensive nature is so startling. Ideally, aviation fuel comes with higher octanes and has a high distillation process which makes it more expensive to manufacture. However, due to the four consecutive excise duty hikes on petrol in the past three months, the cost of the fuel has risen more than ATF in the country.
The consecutive hikes come to a total of Rs. 7.75/- per litre with petrol now attracting an all time high excise duty of Rs. 16.96/- per litre out of which Rs. 8.95/- is base excise duty, Rs. 6/- is special excise duty and Rs. 2/- is additional excise duty. In comparison, ATF attracts an excise duty of 8 percent. Fuel prices have been reduced nine times over the past few months with a cumulative cut of Rs. 14.69/- per litre. The reduction would have been higher had it not been for the four excise duty hikes.
