With the drop in global crude prices, the Centre has cut the windfall tax on domestically produced crude to zero from Rs 4,100 per tonne.It kept unchanged the windfall tax on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) at zero.

The government has slashed the special additional excise duty (SAED) on crude oil produced by companies such as ONGC to nil from Rs 4,100 per tonne with effect from Tuesday, an official order dated May 15 said.

This is the second time that the levy, which was introduced in July last year in the form of a cess to tax supernormal gains of oil producers and fuel exporters, has been cut to nil for domestically-produced oil.

The tax was cut to nil in early April but was brought back in the second half of that month with a Rs 6,400 per tonne levy.

The tax on the export of diesel, which was cut to zero on April 4, continues to stay at that level. Similarly, the levy on the export of jet fuel (ATF), which was cut to nil from March 4, stays the same.

Prashant Vasisht, vice-president and co-group head — of corporate ratings, Icra, said, “Crude prices have been on a downward trend, erasing all the gains that were witnessed post the Opec+ production cuts. The decline has been due to the recessionary fears in large economies.”

Bina refinery

BPCL on Tuesday said its board has approved the ethylene cracker project at the Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh, including downstream petrochemical plants, and the expansion of the refinery with capital expenditure of approximately Rs 49,000 crore.

The board has also approved setting up two 50 MW wind power plants for captive consumption one at Bina and another at its Mumbairefinery, with a total project cost of approximately Rs 978 crore (Rs 489 crore for each project).

Putting up petroleum oil lubricants and lube oil base stock storage installations with receipt pipelines at Rasayani in Maharashtra with a project cost of approximately Rs 1,903 crore was also approved by the board.