new delhi the finance ministry is not in favour of cutting excise duty on petrol and diesel to provide relief to the common man from spike in their prices but wants states to cut sales tax or vat on fuel a senior official said today petrol price today hit a 55month high of rs 7450 a litre while diesel rates touched a record rs 6575 renewing calls for a cut in excise duty to ease the burden on consumers the finance ministry official said however that a reduction in excise duty which makes up for a quarter of retail fuel price is not advisable if the government is to stick to the path of reducing budgetary deficit excise duty cut would be a political call but is not advisable if we have to stick to the fiscal deficit glide path outlined in budget he said the government is targeting reducing fiscal deficit to 33 per cent of the gross domestic product gdp in the current fiscal from 35 per cent last fiscal every rupee cut of excise on fuel will result in a loss of rs 13000 crore to the government the official said adding that the oil ministry has not yet officially asked for a cut in fuel excise duty the official said states should cut vat on fuel to ease the burden on the consumer fiscal considerations are far higher than one or two rupee price impact on consumers he said one or two rupee increase doesnt impact inflation the central government levies rs 1948 a litre of excise duty on petrol and rs 1533 per litre on diesel state sales tax or vat vary from state to state in delhi vat on petrol is rs 1584 and rs 968 a litre on diesel while the government is hoping that geopolitical tension would ease and us shale oil would help ease oil prices it is not in favour of tinkering with the autonomy given to oil psus to revise rates daily in line with the cost also read opinion modi must resist urge to indulge in petrol populism once we have decided on daily price revision it is not a good thing to tinker with that either through excise or by asking oil marketing companies to absorb prices the official said stateowned oil firms which have been since june last year revising auto fuel prices daily today raised petrol and diesel rates by 10 paise per litre each in delhi according to a price notification the hike necessitated due to firming international oil prices comes on the back of a 32 paise increase in rates of petrol effected over the last two days petrol in the national capital now costs rs 7450 a litre the highest since september 14 2013 when rates had hit rs 7606 diesel price at rs 6575 is the highest ever india has the highest retail prices of petrol and diesel among south asian nations as taxes account for half of the pump rates