Centre must withdraw cess on petrol, diesel: Niranjan Pujari
BHUBANESWAR: Finance minister Niranjan Pujari on Tuesday demanded that the Centre should withdraw cess on fuel prices to give relief to consumers feeling the pinch from high cost of petrol and diesel. Responding to an adjournment debate in the assembly, the finance minister said apart from the central excise duty and additional excise duty, the Centre has imposed infrastructure cess of Rs 18 on each litre of petrol and diesel. Similarly, the Centre collects agricultural infrastructure development cess of Rs 2.50 on every litre of petrol and Rs 4/l on diesel.
“While excise duty collected by the Centre is deposited in the divisible pool, the cess is not going into the divisible pool. The states have no share in the cess collected by the Centre on fuel prices. If the Centre withdraws the cess, fuel prices will come down and people will get the benefit,” said Pujari even as opposition BJP and Congress slammed the state for not lowering VAT on petrol and diesel. The finance minister said since petrol and diesel have not been included in GST, the council has allowed the states to impose VAT. “For every litre of petrol, the Centre collects Rs 32.90, including excise duty, additional duty and cess while the state’s VAT is Rs 21.40. Similarly, the Centre gets Rs 31.80 for every litre of diesel while the state gets Rs 18.90 as VAT,” Pujari added.
The prices of petrol and diesel in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday were Rs 91.66 and Rs 88.63 per litre. During the debate, Congress leader Taraprasad Bahinipati slammed both the Centre and the state for the fuel price hike. “Price of petrol has reached around Rs 100 per litre in Malkangiri. The Centre and state have increased excise duty and VAT on petrol and diesel even during the pandemic. The Centre is looting the people,” said Bahinipati.
Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja slammed the BJD for not raising its voice against the Narendra Modi government over the fuel price hike. Some of the Congress MLAs also rode bicycles to the state assembly to lodge their protest against fuel price hike. Senior BJP leader Mohan Majhi said the government should follow other states and reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, which would help bring down prices. Majhi said tax collected by the Centre on petrol and diesel is being spent on welfare of the people.