States rush to slash VAT on petrol, diesel

Within hours of the Centre slashing excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 10 per litre BJPruled states rushed to make similar announcements The Congress called it a byproduct of bypolls referring to setbacks to the saffron parties in some key seatsThe Centrersquos decision ensured that petrol price was cut in the range of Rs 57 to Rs 635 per litre across the country and diesel rates by Rs 1116 to Rs 1288Puducherry saw an additional Rs 7 a litre reduction in both petrol and diesel price because of the cut in value added tax VAT Gujarat had an additional reduction of Rs 565 a litre on petrol and Rs 432 on diesel Uttar Pradesh Karnataka Tripura and Bihar too have announced VAT reductionsPetrol had crossed Rs 110 while diesel hit a century in many areas triggering widespread anger VAT rates differ from state to state leading to differential rates of fuelThe excise duty cut announced on Wednesday night was the highestever reduction in excise duty It rolls back a part of the Rs 13 and Rs 16 per litre increase in taxes on petrol and diesel effected between March 2020 and May 2020 These hikes had taken central taxes on petrol to Rs 329 per litre and Rs 318 a litre on dieselCongress ridicules BJPSenior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the price cut is a fallout of the BJPrsquos performance in recent bypolls ldquoThe results of the 30 Assembly and 3 LS byelections have produced a byproduct The centre has cut excise duties on petrol and dieselrdquo he tweetedHis party colleague Priyanka Gandhi said the Centre was scared of peoplersquos anger ldquoThis is a decision out of fear not from the heart The vasooli government will get an answer for its loot in the coming electionsrdquo she tweeted in HindiLet oppositionruled states slash VAT Giriraj SinghUnion minister Giriraj Singh said it was time for action on the part of the oppositionruled states ldquoThose who abuse PM Modi on Twitter and in the media why have they not reduced VAT in their states Today I thank Yogi Adityanath and Manohar Lal Khattar for reducing VAT Is this opposition just for abusingrdquoThe minister further said that if the oppositionruled state governments feel the pain they should also reduce VAT in their respective states just like Yogi and Khattar did Madhya Pradesh has also reduced the cessThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever