Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is likely to levy additional cess on petrol and diesel in the 2002-03 budget to raise additional resources for developing road infrastructure in the country. While currently a cess on re one per litre is being levied on petrol and diesel to garner Rs 5,962 crore annually, additional cess of between 30 to 50 paisa is likely to be levied on the two transport fuels to mop up an extra Rs 2,000 crore, government sources said in New Delhi.
The additional accruals from the cess would be used to part finance the second phase of rs 58,000 crore National Highway Development Project (NHDP) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
Funds for only half of the 14,252 km NHDP have been tied-up. For the rest we are considering various options including levying of additional cess on petrol and diesel, they said.
Government is presently garnering about Rs 5962 crore annually from the re one cess on petrol and diesel, of which the present year allocation for NHDP was Rs 2100 crore. Bureau Report