Bengaluru, July 3 (TIWN) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday ruled out any cut in excise duty levied on petroleum products for now.

Instead, her Budget for the 2021-22 fiscal tweaked excise duty structure to accommodate an agriculture infrastructure development cess, whose accruals would not be shared with the states.

Besides the tweak, the Budget proposed monetisation of oil and gas pipelines of gas utility GAIL and oil refiners Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

Ujjwala scheme of providing free cooking gas to poor women will be extended to 1 crore more beneficiaries.

A gas pipeline to Jammu and Kashmir as well as setting up of an independent gas transport system operator (TSO) also form part of the budget.