Govt mulls more cess on petrol, diesel

new delhi: concerned over the slow progress of the rs 54,000 crore national highway development project (nhdp), the government is considering levying additional cess on petol and diesel to mop up about rs 2,000 crore annually for developing road infrastructure. currently, a cess of re 1 per litre is being levied on petrol and diesel for developing of road infrastructure.levying of additional cess is likely to be discussed at a brainstorming session being convened by the planning commission here on friday. senior officials, including expenditure secretary c.s. rao and secretary for road transport and highways ashoke joshi would attend the meeting along with n.k. singh, member (energy), planning commission, official sources said. "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. any decision on levying additional cess would form part of finance minister yashwant sinha's union budget for 2002-03. the government is presently garnering about rs 5,900 crore annually from the re 1 cess on petrol and diesel, of which the present year allocation for nhdp was rs 2,100 crore. ministry of road transport and highways had in june 2001 mooted 30 paise per litre additional cess on petrol and diesel, which could not be pushed through due to difference between the planning commission and finance ministry, sources said. while funds for the rs 27,000 crore golden quadrilateral part of the nhdp connecting the four metros of delhi, mumbai, chennai and kolkata with four/six lane highway by 2003 end has been tied up, the north-south corridor joining kashmir with kanyakumari and east-west corridor linking silchar with porbandar and 1,000 km of port connectivity were yet to achieve financial closure. "the cabinet has given approval for road construction work worth rs 30,300 crore out of the rs 54,000 crore project. the funds for the remaining was yet to be tied up," sources said. ministry of road transport and highway, in its earlier proposal, wanted the additional cess to be indexed to annual rate of inflation, which did not find favours with the planning commission as it would have meant frequent revisions, they added.