NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday jacked up fuel taxes by Rs 3 per litre to soak up much of the gains from a 30% drop in global oil prices and blotting hopes of petrol and diesel prices falling rapidly over the next few days as the impact of Monday’s price crash begins to hit home.But still, pump prices declined marginally, with petrol dropping below Rs 70 per litre-mark in Delhi for the first time since January 14, 2019, as softer crude offset the impact of higher levies. In spite of the elevated levies, petrol became cheaper by 13 paise a litre and diesel by 16 paise as the state-run fuel retailers passed on the amount of gain from lower oil and product prices left after adjusting the revised levies.Oil market projections indicate that even after increase tax pump prices are likely to hover around current levels and move within a band, unless oil swings either ways or the rupee weakens further against the Greenback.This is reminiscent of the Narendra Modi government’s first term when excise duty was cumulatively raised by Rs 11.77 per litre and on diesel by Rs 13.47 a litre between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up its kitty by mopping up the much of the gains from oil prices sliding from $110/barrel in March 2014 to $40/barrel in June 2016. The tax was later cut by Rs 2 in October 2017 — months before the May 22, 2018 Karnataka polls — and by Rs 1.50 a year later. But excise duty was again raised by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019.On Saturday, the government raised special excise duty by Rs 2 per litre to Rs 8 per litre on petrol and Rs 4 a litre, or double, on diesel. In addition, road cess was raised by Re 1 per litre each on petrol and diesel to Rs 10. After the latest revision, consumers will pay Rs 22.98 as excise duty on a litre of petrol, or 32% of Saturday’s retail price at Delhi. On diesel, they will pay Rs 18.83 a litre as excise duty, which is 30% of the price in Delhi. Central taxes on petrol stood at Rs 9.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 3.56 on diesel when the Modi government took over in May 2014.Officials reckon the higher fuel tax will yield approximately Rs 2,000 crore in the fortnight till March 31, when the current financial year (2019-20) ends. In 2020-21, they expect to garner an additional Rs 39,000 crore revenue. The additional resources will allow the government to continue with infrastructure and social spendings.Since Monday’s oil price crash, TOI has been consistently reporting that the government will use the window to mop up resources, using the precedence of raising excise duty nine times between November 2014 and January 2016. During a Lok Sabha debate on January 4, 2018, the then leader of the Congress in the House, Mallikarjun Kharge , had estimated the government garnered Rs 5.5 lakh crore by raising excise duty on motor fuels between 2014 and 2016.Oil prices have been coming down since January but plunged 30% on Monday to $31/ barrel as Saudi Arabia announced hefty discounts and intention to pump up volumes in retaliation against Russia, which walked out of their three-year alliance over OPEC proposal to prop up prices by deepening production cut to 3.6% of global supply. Since January 11, petrol has become cheaper by more than Rs 6 per litre.