NEW DELHI: India introduced export duties on gasoil, gasoline and jet fuel on Friday to help maintain domestic supplies, while also imposing a windfall tax on oil producers who have benefited from higher global crude oil prices.
The new taxes, announced in government orders, will dent the earnings of refiners like Reliance Industries Ltd and Nayara Energy, part owned by Russian oil major Rosneft, and oil producers Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd and Vedanta Ltd.
Shares of Reliance fell as much as 8.7% to 2,370.10 rupees, their biggest intra-day percentage drop since November 2020, while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals slumped 10% to 81.55 rupees.
Private refiners Reliance and Nayara have been among India's biggest buyers this year of discounted Russian supplies and have been reaping major profits by reducing domestic sales and aggressively boosting fuel exports, including to buyers in Europe, which is now boycotting imports of Russian energy.
Share of fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum rose after the announcement of the new export duties of 6 rupees per litre for both gasoline and jet fuel and 13 rupees per litre for gasoil.
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The government also set new rules requiring oil companies exporting gasoline to sell to the domestic market the equivalent of 50% of the amount sold overseas for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2023. For diesel, they are required to sell domestic buyers the equivalent of at least 30% of the amount that they export.
New export restrictions will not apply to export focussed units like Reliance's 704,000 bpd refinery at Jamnagar in western Gujarat and on supplies to Bhutan and Nepal, the government orders said.
Vedanta shares dropped as much as 7.6% to hit their lowest since March 2021 and Oil and Natural Gas Corp shares fell 10.5%, their worst intra-day percentage fall since April 2020.
The windfall tax, in the form of a special additional excise duty (SAED), on oil producers was set at 23,250 rupees per tonne of crude oil, the orders said.
The new tax will not apply on incremental barrels produced by the companies this fiscal year and to small explorers that produce less than 2 million barrels in the last fiscal year to March 31, 2022.
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