NEW DELHI: Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday blamed “excessive taxes” on fuel for runaway prices.“Relentless rise in prices of petrol and diesel is not inevitable because the price is built up by excessive taxes on petrol and diesel. If taxes are cut, prices will decline significantly,” Chidambaram tweeted as the rupee shrank further to 71.54 against the dollar to push up fuel prices to new highs.Petrol price in Delhi rose to a record Rs 79.31 a litre and diesel climbed to an all-time high of Rs 71.34, stoking public anger and sparking fresh demand for excise duty cut to cushion the spike.Petrol price has risen by Rs 2.17 per litre since August 16, while diesel has climbed by Rs 2.62, the highest in any fortnight since June last year when state-owned fuel retailers began revising prices daily.Central and state taxes make up half the pump prices. The Centre had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell. It reduced the tax just once by Rs 2 in October 2017.The hikes have more than doubled excise mop-up from petro goods in the last four years — from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18. States saw their VAT revenue from petro goods rise from Rs 1,37,157 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,84,091 crore in 2017-18.The Centre levies Rs 19.48 per litre of excise duty on petrol and Rs 15.33 on diesel. States levy value added tax, the lowest being in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where a 6% sales tax is charged on both fuels.