Representative image. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata, GODL-India, Wikimedia Commons
Why it matters
The levy decides how much refiners pay on every litre of diesel, jet fuel and petrol they ship abroad, and so how attractive exporting is compared with selling at home. The government says it is there to keep enough fuel in India during the West Asia war. The order does not change the duty on fuel sold in India.
The windfall tax on diesel exports went up by ₹3 to ₹11.5 a litre on Saturday, 31 October 2026, and the levy on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) exports rose 50 paise to ₹11 a litre. The export levy on petrol was cut to nil from ₹2.5. The finance ministry made the changes through two notifications published in the Gazette of India the same day, and they took effect at once.
The changes apply only to fuel shipped out of India. The ministry said there is no change in the duty on petrol and diesel sold in the country, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI), so this order does not touch the tax on fuel sold at Indian pumps.
What the two windfall tax notifications say
The levy is formally a special additional excise duty (SAED), an extra excise charge the Centre can set by notification. Reports, including those of the news agency PTI, call it a windfall tax: it was brought in to stop exporters gaining from the gap between high world prices and Indian prices, PTI reported.
Notification No. 55/2026-Central Excise (G.S.R. 963(E)) changes two entries in the main export-levy notification of 26 March 2026: petrol becomes “Nil” and diesel becomes “Rs. 11.5 per litre”. Notification No. 56/2026-Central Excise (G.S.R. 964(E)) changes the ATF entry in a separate March notification to “Rs. 11 per litre”. Both are signed by Dheeraj Sharma, Under Secretary in the Department of Revenue, and both say they come into force on the date of publication, which is 31 October.
| Export levy | Until 30 Oct | From 31 Oct | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel | ₹8.5 a litre | ₹11.5 a litre | +₹3 |
| ATF (jet fuel) | ₹10.5 a litre | ₹11 a litre | +₹0.5 |
| Petrol | ₹2.5 a litre | Nil | cut by ₹2.5 |
The notifications do not give an end date. PTI’s report, carried by Business Standard, describes the new rates as applying “for the fortnight”, because the government has been revising them every two weeks.
Where the ₹24 windfall tax figure comes from
Reports on earlier revisions carry a ₹24 diesel figure. That number is real but old. The diesel export duty was ₹24 a litre in April 2026 and was set at ₹24 again later, after mid-July, by Notification 40/2026, according to TaxGuru, a tax-news site that reproduces each notification. It is not the rate from 31 October.
NewsPlainly pieced together the diesel rate from the notifications as summarised by TaxGuru and from the 31 October Gazette copy. The gaps in the table are fortnights for which we did not read the notification.
| From | Notification | Diesel export levy |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | not named in source | ₹24 a litre |
| 1 May | 19/2026 | ₹23 |
| 16 May | 22/2026 | ₹16.5 |
| 1 June | 24/2026 | ₹13.5 |
| 16 June | 30/2026 | ₹14 |
| 1 July | 36/2026 | ₹8.5 |
| 16 July | 38/2026 | ₹15.5 |
| Later (date not given) | 40/2026 | ₹24 |
| 16 September | 49/2026 | ₹20 |
| 1 October | 52/2026 | ₹16 |
| 16 October | 54/2026 | ₹8.5 |
| 31 October | 55/2026 | ₹11.5 |
Two things stand out. The new ₹11.5 is the first rise after two cuts in a row, from ₹20 on 16 September to ₹16 and then ₹8.5 in October. And it is still less than half the ₹24 rate of April. Petrol has moved the other way: its export levy went from ₹0.5 a litre on 16 September to ₹2.5 on 16 October, and now to nothing.
What it means for a cargo of diesel
A simple NewsPlainly illustration, assuming the whole cargo is covered by the rate with no exemption: on 10 lakh litres of diesel exported, the levy is now ₹1.15 crore, against ₹85 lakh at the 16 October rate. That is ₹30 lakh more. The same volume of ATF now pays ₹1.1 crore instead of ₹1.05 crore. A petrol cargo of that size, which paid ₹25 lakh before, pays nothing.
The levy is a cost on each litre sent abroad, so a higher rate makes exporting diesel less attractive than selling it at home. That was the stated purpose. The government brought in the export duty on diesel and ATF on 27 March amid the war in West Asia, to keep enough fuel in the domestic market and to stop exporters gaining from the gap between world and Indian prices, PTI reported. The levy was extended to petrol exports from 16 May.
The notifications and the reports read do not say why diesel went up and petrol went down this time. The finance ministry has not explained individual revisions in the material checked, and NewsPlainly has not inferred a reason.
Will the windfall tax change pump prices?
No, not directly. The finance ministry said the duty on petrol and diesel cleared for domestic use is unchanged, PTI reported, and both notifications only amend the export tables. Domestic fuel prices depend on other decisions, including the excise duty on fuel sold at home, which this order does not touch.
World prices are the backdrop. India’s crude basket, the benchmark price for the oil India buys, crossed $120 a barrel in October, the highest since March 2012, as NewsPlainly reported on 26 October.
The rates have been revised every fortnight since March, PTI reported. The two notifications themselves set no end date, so the new windfall tax rates apply until the next Gazette notice changes them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the windfall tax on diesel exports now?
₹11.5 a litre from 31 October 2026, up from ₹8.5, under Notification 55/2026-Central Excise.
Is the windfall tax on diesel ₹24?
Not now. ₹24 a litre was the diesel export levy in April 2026 and again for a period after mid-July, according to tax-news summaries of the notifications. From 31 October it is ₹11.5.
Will petrol and diesel prices change because of this?
The order covers exports only. The finance ministry said the duty on petrol and diesel sold in India is unchanged, PTI reported.
What is the export duty on ATF?
₹11 a litre from 31 October 2026, up from ₹10.5, under Notification 56/2026-Central Excise.