Nirmala Sitharaman – Union Finance Minister:

• Our government, since when PM Narendra Modi took office, is devoted to the welfare of the poor. We’ve taken a number of steps to help the poor and middle class. As a result, the average inflation during our tenure has remained lower than during previous governments.
  
  
• Today, the world is passing through difficult times. Even as the world is recovering from Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods. This is resulting in inflation & economic distress in a lot of countries.
  
  
• Even during the pandemic, our government set a paradigm of welfare, especially with PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. This is now acknowledged and appreciated the world over.
  
  
• Despite the challenging international situation, we’ve ensured that there are no shortages/scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn’t escape some shortages/disruptions. We are committed to ensure that prices of essential items are kept under control.
  
  
• Despite rising fertilizer prices globally, we have protected our farmers from such price hikes. In addition to the fertilizer subsidy of ₹ 1.05 lakh crore in the budget, an additional amount of ₹ 1.10 lakh crore is being provided to further cushion our farmers.
  
  
• PM has specifically asked all arms of the government to work with sensitivity and give relief to the common man. Keeping in line with PM Narendra Modi ‘s commitment to help the poor & common man, TODAY, we are announcing more steps to help our people.
  
  
• We are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹ 8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹ 6 per litre. This will reduce the price of petrol by ₹ 9.5 per litre and of Diesel by ₹ 7 per litre.
  
  
• It will have revenue implication of around ₹ 1 lakh crore/year for the government.
  
  
• I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.
  
  
• Also, this year, we will give a subsidy of ₹ 200 per gas cylinder (upto 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around ₹ 6100 crore a year.
  
  
• We are also reducing the customs duty on raw materials & intermediaries for plastic products where our import dependence is high. This will result in reduction of cost of final products.
  
  
• Similarly we are calibrating customs duty on raw materials & intermediaries for iron & steel to reduce their prices. Import duty on some raw materials of steel will be reduced. Export duty on some steel products will be levied.
  
  
• Measures are being taken up to improve the availability of Cement and through better logistics to reduce the cost of cement. Notifications with specific details on all the above will be issued by GoI within the next hour.