While Most Indian States Have Followed The Centre In Cutting Down Taxes On Fuels, Here Are the Ones That Didn’t

Amid the rising crude oil prices and depreciation in the value of rupee, central government on Thursday (4 October) decided to give relief to the common people by reducing the prices of the petrol and diesel by bringing down the central excise duty. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a Rs 1.50 per litre cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel and a Re 1 per litre cut by oil companies thereby effectively decreasing the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 per litre.

The Finance Minister also requested the states to slash VAT on petrol and diesel to provide more relief to common people following which 13 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states reduced VAT on petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 litre the very same day.

The result was that in these states the effective price of petrol and diesel came down by Rs 5 per litre but still there are many states which refused to cut VAT on fuels.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet that this move by Modi government is a sham and the fuel prices should have been reduced by Rs 10 but the Delhi CM was non-committal on when his government will reduce its share of the taxes.

Union Minister Vijay Goel has asked Delhi CM to cut the fuel prices.

Kerala’s finance minister Thomas Isaac also refused to reduce taxes on fuels saying that the state will reduce taxes only when Modi government reduces the taxes to what they were when Modi government assumed office.

“Ever since the Modi government assumed office, it has raised excise duty on diesel by Rs 14 and petrol by Rs 9 per litre. You should understand that the reduction effected on Thursday is on this amount. If the Centre is serious, it should reduce the tax to what it was when it assumed office. Then we will also step in,” he said.

Punjab which has one of the highest tax on fuel in North India has also refused to cut taxes.

West Bengal, while having cut the VAT by Re 1 earlier, has failed to match the cuts by other states. The state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee however, demanded that the Centre further slash its share of the taxes to bring down fuel prices by Rs 10.

Odisha till now has not cut fuel prices despite Petroleum Minister Dharmedra Pradhan demanding that CM Naveen Patnaik to do so. Other states which have not cut fuel prices till now are Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. Tamil Nadu as per reports might consider reducing the tax it levies on fuel.

Telangana, currently under Acting CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, too suffers from the comparatively higher prices as the state government has shown no intention to cut its share of the taxes.