WINDFALL TAX - ECONOMY

News: Windfall-profit tax on crude oil halved, levy on export of diesel too slashed

 

What's in the news?

       The government on December 1 slashed to less than half the windfall-profit tax on domestically produced crude oil and also reduced the levy on diesel.

       The revised tax rates become effective from December 2.

 

Key takeaways:

       The tax on crude oil produced by firms such as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been reduced to ₹4,900 per tonne from the existing ₹10,200 per tonne, as per a government notification issued on December 1.

       In the fortnightly revision of windfall profit tax, the government cut the rate on export of diesel to ₹8 per litre from ₹10.5 per litre. The levy includes ₹1.5 per litre as road infrastructure cess.

       The special additional excise duty on petrol continues to remain nil and that on aviation fuel ATF at ₹5 a litre.

       When the levy was first introduced, a windfall tax on export of petrol alongside diesel and ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel) too was levied. But the tax on petrol was scrapped in subsequent fortnightly reviews.

 

What is the windfall tax?

       Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event - for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

       These are profits that cannot be attributed to something the firm actively did, like an investment strategy or an expansion of business.

       The United States Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines a windfall as an “unearned, unanticipated gain in income through no additional effort or expense”.

       Governments typically levy a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal rates of tax on such profits, called windfall tax.

 

Instances of windfall taxes:

       One area where such taxes have routinely been discussed is oil markets, where price fluctuation leads to volatile or erratic profits for the industry.

       There have been varying rationales for governments worldwide to introduce windfall taxes, from redistribution of unexpected gains when high prices benefit producers at the expense of consumers, to funding social welfare schemes, and as a supplementary revenue stream for the government.

       For instance, in 1980, then United States President Jimmy Carter introduced a crude oil windfall profit tax on the country’s oil industry. This was because the U.S. government between 1979 and 1981 started releasing controls on oil prices and anticipated that this decontrol would lead to oil companies making huge profits.

 

Windfall tax on current scenario:

       Prices of oil, gas, and coal have seen sharp increases since late last year and in the first two quarters of the current year, although having reduced recently.

       The increase stems from a combination of factors, including a mismatch between energy demand and supply during the economic recovery from COVID-19, further amplified by the Russian war in Ukraine.

       Pandemic recovery and supply issues resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict shore up energy demands, in turn driving up global prices.

       The rising prices meant huge and record profits for energy companies while resulting in hefty gas and electricity bills for household bills in major and smaller economies. Since the gains stemmed partly from external change, multiple analysts have called them windfall profits.

 

Windfall tax and India:

       In July, India announced a windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers who it believed were reaping the benefits of the high oil prices. It also imposed an additional excise levy on diesel, petrol and air turbine fuel (ATF) exports.

       India’s case was different from Europe's, as it was still importing discounted Russian oil.

       The windfall tax was targeted mainly at Reliance Industries Ltd and Russian oil major Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy, who the government believed were making a killing on exporting large volumes of fuel made from discounted Russian oil at the cost of the domestic market.

 

Concerns:

1. Affecting investment in the economy - Analysts say that companies are confident in investing in a sector if there is certainty and stability in a tax regime. Since windfall taxes are imposed retrospectively and are often influenced by unexpected events, they can brew uncertainty in the market about future taxes.

2. Affecting the risk-taking ability of the company - If rapid increases in prices lead to higher profits, in one sense it can be called true windfalls as they are unforeseeable but, on the hand, companies may argue that it is the profit they earned as a reward for the industry’s risk-taking to provide the end user with the petroleum product.

3. Another issue is who should be taxed - only the big companies responsible for the bulk of high-priced sales or smaller companies as well - raising the question of whether producers with revenues or profits below a certain threshold should be exempt.