The government of India is examining the proposal of hiking the excise duty on the diesel run cars. While answering a query through a written reply, Minister of State Finance, S S Palanimanickam confirmed the same. He said, "Representations have been received by the government for increasing excise duty on diesel cars. These are under examination".
It is to be mentioned here that the government has been considering the proposal of increasing the duty on the diesel run passenger car, in a bid to curb the increasing pollution due to rising number of diesel run cars. Also, the government is of view that the diesel cars are consuming subsidized diesel providing unintended benefit to diesel car users.
In the recent years, the gap between the petrol and diesel prices has widened-up significantly, causing a major shift of the buyers towards diesel run cars. The Indian car market has been witnessing a continuous rise in the sales of cars. While the total sales in the year 2009-10 was about 15.28 lakh, it has reached to 20.16 lakh in year 2011-12, as per the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
