New Delhi: On Saturday, the Centre had cut excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre to give relief to consumers affected by high fuel prices that have also pushed inflation to a multi-year high. After the Central government decided to cut excise duty, several state governments slashed VAT on petrol and diesel.
Kerala was the first state to announce the reduction in prices “The Union government has partially reduced the huge tax on petrol and diesel. The Kerala government welcomes the decision, “Kerala finance minister KN Balagopal said.
“State government will reduce state tax on the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.41 and Rs 1.36 per litre respectively,” he added. Petrol Prices in Kerala now range from 105.97 to 107.44 and Diesel costs around 94.64 to 96.33.
The Congress-ruled Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted, “Due to the reduction in the prices of petrol and diesel by the central government, the state government will reduce VAT by Rs 2.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 1.16 per litre on diesel. With this, petrol will be cheaper by Rs 10.48 and diesel by Rs 7.16 per litre in the state.” Petrol is now priced at 108.46 in Rajasthan Royals.
The Maharashtra Government (MVA) reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) on per litre petrol by Rs 2.08 and diesel by Rs 1.44 yesterday. Petrol now costs 110.92 and diesel is 97.28.
The Naveen Patnaik Led Odisha government also reduced taxes on petrol and diesel by Rs 2.23 and Rs 1.36 a litre respectively.
The new petrol and diesel prices in Odisha are Rs 102.25 and Rs 94.86 respectively.
Earlier, PM Modi while addressing Chief Ministers had said, “Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu did not follow the advice of the Central government and people in these states are burdened with price rise”. He further went on to praise Karnataka and Gujarat, both ruled by the BJP, saying they have suffered a revenue loss of nearly Rs 5,000 crore and 4,000 crores respectively by reducing VAT but they did so to help the people.”
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