Former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday said bringing petroleum products within the ambit of GST would be a death knell for the states. In a series of tweets in Kannada, the JD(S) second-in-command opposed the attempts to include fuel in GST and appealed to CM B S Yediyurappa not to allow this to happen as it would dry the state’s resources.

“The Centre is systematically pushing petroleum products into the GST in the hope of lowering prices, using public outrage against the oil price hike as pretext. Subjecting petroleum products to GST would be a death knell for states,” Kumaraswamy said.