NEW DELHI: The centre has imposed cess on petroleum products for farmers’ welfare schemes. This was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech. The price of petrol will be hiked by Rs 2.50 per litre and diesel by Rs 4 per litre. However, since the excise duty on these has been reduced equally, the price will not go up.

A cess of 2.5 per cent was imposed on gold and silver bars and 100 per cent for alcohol. A cess of 17.5 per cent has been imposed for crude palm oil, 20 per cent for soybean, 20 per cent for sunflower oil, 35 per cent for apple, 1.5 per cent for specific fertilizers including coal, lignite and urea, 40 per cent for pulses, 30 per cent for white chickpeas, 50 per cent for Bengal chickpeas and 20 per cent on cotton. The government explained that the reduction in customs duty would not directly affect the cess levied on most of them.