Govt Will Take All Steps To Prevent West Asia Conflict Adding Burden On Its Citizens: Nirmala Sitharaman

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The government is working with the guidance to prevent the current West Asian conflict from becoming a burden on its citizens, finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman said on Friday.

Replying to debate on finance bill 2026 in Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said that government has cut excise duty on petrol from ₹13 per litre to ₹3 per litre and completely removed ₹10 per litre excise duty on diesel with the sole aim of preventing the sudden rise in oil prices globally due to the conflict from becoming a burden on its citizens.

Meanwhile, Parliament on Friday approved the Finance Bill 2026 with the Rajya Sabha returning it to the Lok Sabha with a voice vote, completing the budgetary exercise. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on 25 March, along with 32 amendments. The Rajya Sabha returned the bill after a brief discussion.

Also Read | All eyes on oil: India braces for crude blow from Iran strike

“[S]ince the last four years, after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there's been severe stress in terms of the oil, fertilizers, and therefore we are carefully managing the situation and the Prime Minister's one single guidance is: hamare nagrik ke upar bojh na pade (there should not be a burden on the citizens). We are managing the situation carefully and this morning itself announced excise duty cut on petrol and diesel with immediate effect,” the finance minister said.

The finance minister said India has not increased the retail price of petrol and diesel and, on the contrary, the government is taking the burden upon itself and making sure that the oil marketing companies keep buying more petroleum products and keeping the supply uninterrupted.

Sitharaman said the government has also put export tax on refined products to ensure that these products are available in the domestic market first under the current circumstances.

Rising crude prices

Global crude oil prices have risen from a level of $70 a barrel to over $122 a barrel in just over a month due to the ongoing West Asia conflict, the finance minister said and added that this has resulted in petrol and diesel prices rising by 30–50% in South-east Asian countries, 30% in North America, 20% in Europe and 50% in African countries, while in India prices have remained completely unchanged.

Responding to a question on how the government will ensure fiscal deficit at 4.3% in 2026-27 in view of the reduction in excise duties announced on petrol and basil, the finance minister said excise duty is one of the multiple sources of government revenue, and contributes under 10% of the gross tax revenue estimated to be collected in the the forthcoming financial year but the government will be“on its toes” to manage fiscal health of the economy.“So mobilization of additional resources, prioritizing on growth induced expenditure, better targeting of welfare expenditure and also greater transparency in fiscal operations have been significantly the hallmark of government, and I think we will following the same pattern. We will be able to keep the government's fiscal stance carefully managed.

Also Read | India taps Iran for safe passage of six LPG, two oil vessels via Hormuz strait

Earlier, the finance minister said that the Finance Bill 2026 was drafted with reforms in mind that reform express, about which Prime Minister keeps referring to, had maintained its momentum.

“The momentum on reforms has not come down at all. The Finance bill also has elements of this reforms being pushed because we want India to be a lot more economically vibrant country. The reform express is what has guided us to bring in very many elements into the Finance Bill, so that it reflects the mood of the nation,” the finance minister said.

Inclusivity the objective

“The guiding principle has been inclusivity, and we have made sure that every section gets to benefit from the opening of the economy. The approach also has been to look at every law that is there, every regulation or notification, with an intention of making sure that we decriminalize and the regulation is a soft touch regulation,” she added.

The deregulation could be seen with changes in Customs Act, which have made overseas travel of passengers easier. Also, all within a year in 2025, a major reshaping of the tax administration has been taken up with Department of Revenue not only amending the Income Tax Act, but also looked at customs, looked at GST reforms, Sitharaman said.

Overall, the approach of the government has been to make it easier for people to do business, she said.

Also Read | Indian shipments take costlier, longer route to Europe amid US-Iran tensions

The finance minister also suggested that new series of GDP with 2023-24 as base year was not done with the intention of any downward revision of GDP numbers of the previous government and the expected this year has been a general practice and has been done by all previous governments since independence where new series is adopted overy 10 years.

On cesses and surcharges, the finance minister said that these were levied with certain purpose in mind and states were the biggest beneficiary of the levy collected by the Centre.“We are collecting cesses and surcharges, and we are spending it too. In fact, between 2014-15 and 2026-27, the collection from cess (excluding crude oil and GST compensation) is estimated at ₹24.34 trillion while the spending has been ₹24.28 trillion,” the finance minister said.

MENAFN28032026007365015876ID1110910559