The move will help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels.
The move will have a revenue implication of around ₹6100 crore a year, the finance minister said.
“This will help our mothers and sisters," said Sitharaman.
Cooking gas LPG prices on Thursday rose for the second time this month by ₹3.50, taking LPG cylinder prices across the country over the ₹1,000-mark.
On 19 May, 14.2 kg domestic LPG cylinders in Delhi and Mumbai costed ₹1,003; and in Kolkata it cost ₹1,029, for Chennai it was ₹1,018.5.
In a series of key announcements made on Saturday by the Finance Minister of India, reduction in excise duty of Petrol and Diesel was also made. “We are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹6 per litre. This will reduce the price of petrol by ₹ 9.5 per litre and of Diesel by ₹ 7 per litre. It will have revenue implication of around ₹ 1 lakh crore/year for the government.," Sithraman announced.
The FM exhorted all state governments, "especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021)", to also implement a similar cut and "give relief to the common man".
Further, the FM also announced a reduction in the customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for plastic products where import dependence is high. This aims to reduce cost of final products.
The Indian Government is also calibrating customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for iron and steel to reduce their prices. Import duty on some raw materials of steel will be reduced. Export duty on some steel products will be levied.
The Centre is further taking measures to improve the availability of cement and through better logistics to reduce the cost of cement.
