New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): The Centre on Saturday increased the windfall tax or Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) on the production of crude petroleum from Rs 8,000 per tonne to Rs 11,000 per tonne with effect from October 16.

Apart from this, the Centre also increased the SAED on the export of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to Rs 3.50 per litre from nil in the last review. Similarly, the windfall tax on the export of diesel has been increased from Rs 5 per litre to Rs 10.50 per litre.

A notification regarding the above changes was issued by the Ministry of Finance on Saturday.

Earlier, the government had cut the windfall profit tax on locally produced crude oil and diesel and scrapped the levy on the export of jet fuel with effect from October 2.

Windfall tax is levied when an industry unexpectedly earns large profits - primarily due to an unprecedented event. Crude oil prices had spiralled during the period of March to May after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the supply cut by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, also known as OPEC+.