- There is no announcement in the state budget regarding reduction of fuel charges.
- Therefore, petrol and diesel prices will remain expensive, not a relief to the common man
- Earlier, four states - West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam and Meghalaya - had reduced their fees
The expectation of the people that the state government will make petrol and diesel cheaper by reducing fuel tariffs like other states was a fallacy today. The state budget was presented by the state’s Mahavikas Aghadi government on Monday. It did not announce any reduction in fuel charges. However, in the next financial year, there will be a revenue deficit of around Rs 66,000 crore, said Finance Minister Ajit Pawar.
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The state budget was presented to the legislature on Monday by the state’s Mahavikas Aghadi government. Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar presented the budget to the Legislature. Petrol in the state had reached hundreds. Therefore, it was expected that the government would reduce taxes in the budget. The government had in last year’s budget increased the value-added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by Rs 1 per litre. Now it was possible that the announcement of tax cuts on petrol and diesel could come from the budget to woo the central government. However, the finance minister did not make an announcement in this regard. This shattered expectations of cheaper petrol and diesel.
Due to the non-announcement of reduction in fuel tariff, the people of the state will have to buy fuel at a higher rate for a few more days. Ordinary citizens will have to bear the brunt of taxes on petrol and diesel. Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis, meanwhile, said after the budget that the state government had no right to talk about petrol and diesel price hike as it had not reduced fuel prices by a single penny.
Earlier, four states – West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam, and Meghalaya – had cut local taxes on fuel. As a result, petrol and diesel prices fell sharply. The Rajasthan government had on January 29 reduced the value-added tax on fuel. Rajasthan had reduced VAT on petrol and diesel from 38 percent to 36 percent. To please the voters, the Assam government has also dropped water on tax revenue.
An additional five per cent tax on petrol and diesel was abolished in the vote-on-account submitted by the Assam State Government. As a result, petrol and diesel became cheaper by Rs 5 in Assam. In the Corona crisis, the Assam government had imposed additional taxes on petrol, diesel and liquor.
Eastern Meghalaya had also reduced tariffs on petrol and diesel. The Meghalaya state government had reduced the tariff on petrol by Rs 7.40 and diesel by Rs 7.10. For the first time, a discount of Rs 2 was given. After that, VAT on petrol was reduced from 31.62 per cent to 20 percent. On diesel, it went up from 22.95 per cent to 12 percent. In March last year, the central government had hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 and diesel by Rs 16.
