The Central government has cut export levies on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) for the next two weeks, according to notifications issued by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.
The export levy on petrol has been reduced by Rs 1 per litre, while the duty on diesel has been cut by Rs 5 per litre. The levy on ATF has also been reduced by Rs 4 per litre.
The revised rates will come into effect from September 16.
The latest changes apply to export levies. There is no change in the existing excise duty rates on petrol and diesel sold for domestic consumption.
What are the new export levies?
Under the latest revision, the export levy on petrol has been reduced to Rs 0.5 per litre from Rs 1.5 per litre. For diesel, the total levy has been brought down to Rs 20 per litre from Rs 25 per litre.
The export levy on ATF has been reduced to Rs 15 per litre from Rs 19 per litre.
For diesel, the earlier Rs 25 per litre levy included Rs 24 per litre as Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) and Rs 1 per litre as Road and Infrastructure Cess (RIC).
Under the revised rates, the SAED on diesel has been reduced to Rs 20 per litre, while the RIC has been brought down to zero.
The Finance Ministry issued separate notifications revising the SAED on petrol and diesel to Rs 0.5 per litre and Rs 20 per litre, respectively. The levy on ATF has also been reduced to Rs 15 per litre.
The government has also withdrawn the Rs 1 per litre RIC on diesel exports that was imposed during the previous review. The September 1 notification had increased the RIC on diesel exports from nil to Rs 1 per litre.
Why did the government impose these export levies?
The export levies were introduced from March 27, 2026, as the government sought to discourage exports and ensure enough petroleum products were available in the domestic market amid the West Asia crisis.
The government reviews these levies every fortnight. The rates are changed based on average international prices of crude oil, petrol, diesel and ATF.
In the previous revision, which took effect from September 1, the export levy on petrol was set at Rs 1.5 per litre. The total levy on diesel was fixed at Rs 25 per litre, while the levy on ATF was set at Rs 19 per litre.
The latest reduction means exporters will now face lower duties on all three petroleum products for the current fortnight.