Today's Diesel Price in Maharashtra

Maharashtra has a huge multi-modal transportation system. The road transportation in the state is operated by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which provides economical public road transport service. The state-run buses called State Transport (ST) are the preferred mode of transport for most of the people residing in various cities and districts in the state. Private transport in the state is composed of taxis, auto rickshaws and private vehicles.

With more population depending on road transportation and people in major cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur using private vehicles for their day-to-day use, the demand for diesel in Maharashtra is likely to be high.

Discussed below are the various factors that affect diesel price in Maharastra, the taxes levied by state and central governments on diesel, the daily revision of diesel prices in Maharashtra and other interesting facts about the fuel.

Factors Affecting Diesel Rate in Maharashtra:

Diesel price in Maharashtra, just like in other Indian states, fluctuates on a daily basis. There are many components that factor into diesel pricing in India. While few of them affect diesel cost on a daily basis, others affect it once in a while.

Factors that affect diesel price on a daily basis are the international crude oil prices and the US dollar to Indian rupee currency exchange rate.

India imports 70% of its oil requirements from other countries. Hence, diesel prices in India are directly linked to the global crude oil prices. As the crude oil prices are volatile in nature and change every day, diesel prices in India are updated accordingly.

The second factor that impacts diesel price on daily basis is the currency exchange rate. As crude oil trade usually happens in US dollars, the daily fluctuating dollar value impacts diesel price.

Besides the daily impacting components, there are these other components such as the state and central government taxes, marketing costs, transportation costs, dealer's margins and commission and other operating costs that are factored into diesel pricing.

Among others, state level taxes affect the diesel price in Maharashtra. All the 29 states in India levy value added tax (VAT) on diesel. The tax rate varies from each states as the respective governments are free to decide the taxes. Hence, the tax levied by Maharashtra government makes the diesel price in the state different from other states.

Similar to state government, the central government also levies tax on diesel, called excise duty. The excise duty on diesel remains same across the states. Any revision in the tax would affect the diesel prices in all the states. The recent cut in the excise duty on petrol and diesel in October 2017, is one such move that affected the diesel prices in all the Indian states.

Other factors that marginally impact the diesel price include the profit margins, commission and other operating charges. Though these charges are relatively low, any revision in these may also impact the diesel price.

State Taxes and Diesel Price in Maharashtra:

As discussed earlier, state taxes form a major portion of diesel price in Maharashtra. Currently, the state government levies 28.41% VAT on a litre of diesel in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Thane and in rest of the state it charges 25.38%.

How often Diesel Price are Revised in Maharashtra?

Diesel prices in Maharashtra, similar to rest of the states, are being revised on a daily basis. The daily revision of diesel prices was introduced in June 2017 to bring transparency in the fuel pricing in India.

Also called dynamic fuel pricing, the method aligns the diesel prices in the country to the international crude prices and currency exchange rate. As both the components change on a daily basis, diesel pricing will be revised every day. The new pricing passes even the slightest change in the international crude prices and the currency rates to the end customer immediately. The resultant price change will be in manageable currency limits unlike the previous fortnightly revision which used to give high price shocks to the customers.

Ever since dynamic fuel pricing was implemented all the petrol pumps across the state have been updating the diesel prices every day by 6 a.m. While the automated fuel stations are controlled centrally and are receiving an auto update of revised diesel price, the non-automated petrol pumps are doing it manually.

Customers can find the revised diesel prices on the respective websites of the oil companies. For petrol pump specific rate, they have to send an SMS with dealer code to a designated number. Dealer codes are available at the petrol pumps.

Effect of GST on Maharashtra Diesel Price:

GST or the goods and services tax was introduced in India in July 2017 to make the taxew uniform across all the Indian states. Following the implementation of the GST regime, the prices of many of the products and services got affected both positively and negatively. However, the price diesel remain unchanged as diesel along with other fuels is currently kept outside GST. Meaning, the commodities are still being taxed as per the old tax regime, where state and central government levy various taxes.

Therefore, the effect of GST on the diesel price in Maharashtra and elsewhere in India is zero.

If at all it is brought under GST, diesel price would see a significant change in Maharashtra as the highest tax rate under GST is 28%, which is way lesser than the total taxes currently being charged on diesel.

Diesel Rate versus Petrol Rate in Maharashtra:

Diesel in Maharashtra is cheaper than petrol because of the tax component involved in the pricing. Just like in any other Indian state, the state and central taxes levied on diesel are lesser than that of petrol, hence once could find the difference in the retail selling price of both of commodities.

The Maharashtra government currently charges 47.94% VAT on a litre of petrol in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai and in rest of the state it charges 46.81%. The VAT on diesel is 28.41% in the three cities, while it is 25.38% in the rest of the state. The huge difference in the tax rate results in the price difference of petrol and diesel.

*Disclaimer: BankBazaar makes no guarantee or warranty on the accuracy of the data provided on this page, the prevailing prices are susceptible to change and provided on an as-is basis. We accept no liability for any loss arising from the use of the data contained on this website.