New Delhi

Amidst rising energy prices and inflation, the Central excise duty on petrol has been cut by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre,  reducing the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

"Today, the world is passing through difficult times. Even as the world is recovering from Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods. This is resulting in inflation & economic distress in a lot of countries," she said in a series of tweets.

The duty cut will have revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh crore per year for the government.

Sitharaman went on say that despite the challenging international situation, the government has ensured that there are no shortages or scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn't escape some shortages or disruptions, she added.

The government is committed to ensuring that prices of essential items are kept under control, she said.

She said: "I wish to exhort 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."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to speak about his government's move to slash excise durty to bring down prices of oil and oil products. He said "It's always the people first for us::

It is always people first for us!

Today’s decisions, especially the one relating to a significant drop in petrol and diesel prices will positively impact various sectors, provide relief to our citizens and further ‘Ease of Living.’ https://t.co/n0y5kiiJOh

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 21, 2022

"This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around Rs 6,100 crore a year."

Further, it is also reducing the customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for plastic products where the country's import dependence is high. It will result in reduction of cost of final products.

A notification with specific details on all these mention moves will be issued by the Centre within the next hours.