Fuel export duty revised: What changed, what did not and what the reports leave out

What changed: petrol export duty rose from Rs 0.50 to Rs 2.50 per litre, and diesel fell from Rs 16 to Rs 8.50 per litre.

What did not change: the duty on aviation turbine fuel at Rs 10.50, and domestic excise duties.

Timing: effective October 16, with the order issued late on October 15.

Background: the levies were reintroduced in March 2026 and are reviewed every fortnight.

Left out: the reasons for the specific rates, the revenue effect and any company response.

The petrol duty was Rs 0.50 per litre earlier, a fivefold rise, according to UNI.

The diesel duty was Rs 16 per litre earlier, according to the same report.

Northlines says the diesel figure includes the special additional excise duty and the road and infrastructure cess.

The duty on aviation turbine fuel stayed at Rs 10.50 per litre, according to Reporters Today.

The changes were issued in a government order late on Thursday, October 15, according to News24.

The previous revision was on October 1, according to Reporters Today, and the duties are reviewed every fortnight, according to The Statesman.

The levies were withdrawn in 2024 and reintroduced in March 2026 after crude oil prices spiked during the US-Israeli war with Iran, according to The Statesman.

The revision covers exports only, and domestic excise duties are unchanged, so it does not directly move pump prices, according to The Statesman.

HDFC Sky reported that petrol and diesel prices held steady on October 16 as the government revised the export duties.

A windfall tax is a levy on unusually high profits that arise from market conditions and not from a company’s own decisions, and in this case it is applied to fuel exports.

An export duty on fuels is meant to encourage refiners to supply the domestic market first and to capture part of the extra earnings from high international prices.

Jamnagar refinery (file image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0