Pinarayi Vijayan led left Democratic Front government in Kerala has refused to reduce tax on petrol and diesel on the line of Centre and many NDA ruled states reducing taxes to give relief to people from the runaway prices. This means people of communist-ruled Kerala will not have that much relief except for what the Centre and several states have offered.
Kerala is among opposition-ruled states which are not inclined to give any relief to common people.
Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal during a press conference said that VAT on petrol and diesel will not be reduced in the state. He claimed that owing to a peculiar tax structure of Kerala, there was a natural proportionate decrease in the VAT in the state after the Centre reduced taxes. “When the Centre reduces its tax by Rs 10 and Rs 5 for diesel and petrol respectively, it has actually been reduced by Rs 12.30 and Rs 6.56 in Kerala,” he said.
The finance minister said that even though Kerala govt has not announced any cut in VAT, there is actually a reduction by Rs 2.30 on diesel and Rs 1.56 on petrol due to its tax structure on fuel. He further claimed that like many other states, Kerala had not increased fuel tax during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the last six years the state has not increased state tax on petrol and diesel.
Besides, K N Balagopal claimed that the Kerala government runs several financial relief packages for people affected by COVID-19 and the rebuilding efforts after the recent natural disasters that will be affected if the VAT is reduced on petrol and diesel. He claimed that the Centre reduced excise duty as it suffered setbacks in the recent by-elections in various states.
On the eve of Diwali, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had cut excise duty on petrol and diesel. The excise duty on petrol was reduced by Rs 5 and the same was cut by Rs 10 on diesel. The Centre urged state governments to ‘commensurately reduce’ the Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel to give relief to consumers.
NDA ruled states join price cut move
After the centre cut the excise duty and urged the states to do the same, several states have reduced VAT on petrol and diesel. For instance, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh announced a flat cut of Rs 12 per litre in petrol and diesel. The Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj S Bommai, Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma, Biplab Kumar Deb of Tripura, Pramod Sawant of Goa, Bhupendra Bhagel of Gujarat, Prem Singh Tamang of Sikkim and N Biren Singh of Manipur have announced a reduction of VAT by Rs 7 per litre on petrol diesel. NDA-ruled Haryana government, too, reduced VAT making petrol and diesel cheaper by Rs 12 per litre, whereas Madhya Pradesh also announced a reduction of 4 percent VAT on petrol and diesel. Nitish Kumar led BJP-JD (U) government in Bihar has announced a relief of more than Rs 3.
Opposition parties crying hoarse on fuel prices are silent now to reduce prices in their states
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is the only non-NDA Chief Minister who welcomed Centre’s move and further reduced the price by Rs 3 on both diesel and petrol in Odisha. But other non-NDA ruled states are completely silent on giving relief to people by revising taxes on petrol and diesel as done by the Centre and NDA-ruled states. Kerala is among the states namely Delhi, Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh ruled by the non-NDA parties. Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi who twice wrote letters to Prime Minister on fuel price in June last year and February this year has yet not asked her government in Punjab and Chhattisgarh, and alliance partners in Maharashtra and Jharkhand to give relief to people.
