On Saturday, the Central Government finally slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 and 6 per litre. This has reduced the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and diesel by Rs 7 per litre.

Taking to Twitter, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "It will have a revenue implication of around Rs one lakh crore/year for the government." "I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where the reduction wasn't done during the last round (November 2021), also to implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man," she added.

As the Centre and opposition parties call each other out on the recent cut in central excise duty on fuel, the latter accuses the government of "duping" people with a "jugglery of figures" Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today hit back with a clarification.

Ms Sitharaman, in a series of tweets, explained that the excise duty component that has been slashed is not shareable by the state and the Centre bears the total cost. She also pointed to comparative data on developmental expenditure and subsidies to claim that the PM Modi-led government has spent much more in the last 8 years than what the Congress-led UPA did in the 10-years it was in power.

Congress, and some other opposition parties, had alleged that the Narendra Modi-led government had slashed excise duty shared by states, thus not making a significant effort to bring down prices of petrol, diesel, and cooking gas.