Shinde informed reporters after a cabinet meeting at Mantralaya that the decision would entail a burden of Rs 6,000 crore on the state exchequer.
Tag: Fuel Price
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‘Cut taxes on fuel in 15 days’: BJP threatens protests in Bengal
Speaking to reporters, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the state government should give some relief to the people when the Centre has cleared all the GST dues.
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‘Fuel prices reduction a formality’: Gehlot hits out at Modi government
By PTI
JAIPUR: Calling reductions in fuel prices a formality, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday claimed the Centre had to reduce the excise duty under the pressure of the Congress party’s public awareness campaign decided in the recently held Chintan Shivir.
He also demanded that the central government should lower the petrol and diesel prices to the level during the UPA rule if the government wants to give relief to people in the true sense.
However, the opposition BJP demanded from the state government to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel while terming the Modi government’s decision a historic one.
“Due to the continuous protests by the Congress against inflation across the country and the pressure of public awareness campaign against the inflation decided in “Navsankalp Shivir, Udaipur”, the central government today had to decide to reduce the excise duty on petrol and diesel,” Gehlot tweeted.
“However, in the last two months, the price of petrol and diesel had increased by about Rs 10 per litre. In such a situation, today’s deduction appears to be just a formality,” he said.
Gehlot said that if the central government really wants to give relief to the common man, then the excise duty should be reduced to the level of the UPA rule, which will bring the prices of diesel and petrol around Rs 70 per litre.
Welcoming the Centre’s move, deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore said that it was a historic decision of the Modi government which will provide relief to the people from inflation.
He said that now its turn for the Ashok Gehlot led Congress government in Rajasthan to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel.
“It is the responsibility of the state government to give relief to people by reducing VAT on petrol and diesel,” he said in a video statement.
The Centre on Saturday cut excise duty on petrol by a record Rs 8 per litre and that on diesel by Rs 6 per litre to give relief to consumers battering under high fuel prices that has also pushed inflation to a multi-year high.
The excise duty cut will translate into a reduction of Rs 9.5 a litre on petrol and Rs 7 a litre in diesel after taking into account its impact on other levies.
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Rahul demands rollback in prices of fuel, leads protest against hike
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Stepping up the attack against the government over steep hike in fuel prices, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the rise in petrol and diesel prices has been unprecedented and demanded its roll back.
Leading a protest by Congress MPs on the issue at Vijay Chowk here, he said prices of petrol and diesel have risen nine times in the last 10 days, and the common man is the most affected due to this.
Congress MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha carrying placards raised slogans against the government and sat on a dharna against the fuel price hike.
Among those present included Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
“Our demand is that the government should control prices and stop raising petrol and diesel prices,” Gandhi said while noting that the poor and middle class have been worst hit by the hike.
“We can see that petrol and diesel prices are climbing rapidly. The government is making thousands of crores from this. The Congress is protesting across the country against this price rise of petrol and diesel. The government has to stop doing this. It has to ensure that prices do not rise,” he told reporters.
“I had said that when elections will be over, the prices of petrol and diesel will be rising and had asked people to fill up their tanks,” he said.
Gandhi shared on Twitter petrol rates in countries in the Indian sub continent. “Petrol Rate in Indian Rupees (Rs) Afghanistan: 66.99. Pakistan: 62.38. Sri Lanka: 72.96. Bangladesh: 78.53. Bhutan: 86.28. Nepal: 97.05. India: 101.81.
“Don’t ask questions to the ‘Fakir’, who shares knowledge on the camera. Loots India while carrying a bag full of ‘jumlas’ (rhetoric),” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using hashtag “MehangaiMuktBharat”.
Gandhi said this level of price rise in petrol and diesel has been unprecedented, while accusing the government of stealing the money from the poor and handing it over to industrialists.
The Congress is also launching a week-long countrywide protest “Mehngai Mukt Bharat’ against inflation and rise in fuel prices, under which it will launch a social media campaign as well as beat plates and drums.
It will also garland LPG cylinders across the country at all state and district headquarters to highlight high inflation and rise in fuel prices.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Thursday hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon local taxation.
This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.
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Government to take all measures to provide relief to consumers from high fuel prices: Puri
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Amid skyrocketing oil prices, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said the government will take all required measures in the coming months to ensure that consumers get relief from high fuel prices.
Replying during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas also shared that a proposal to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax was taken up by the GST Council but it “did not find favour”.
India relies on overseas purchases to meet about 85 per cent of its oil requirement, making it one of the most vulnerable in Asia to higher oil prices.
Puri was responding to senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, who said it was agreed upon by the government and the opposition that petroleum products will be eventually brought under GST at the time of its introduction, and sought to know the progress been made in this regard.
“States which are acquiring high revenue from the sale of petrol and petroleum products and if I may also add liquor are normally reluctant to reduce their revenue from these two sources,” said the Petroleum Minister.
However, Puri said “the government will in the coming months also take whatever measures we have to, to make sure that our consumer gets relief to the extent we can”.
Observing that oil prices had shot up from USD 19.56 cents a barrel to USD 130 a barrel at one stage and are currently hovering around USD 109 a barrel, the minister said it is emanating from a war-like situation, apparently referring to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“But within that whatever space we have, vigour space, margin of persuasion, we should continue to exercise that in the interest of the Indian citizen and the consumer,” Puri told the Upper House.
Though the government has deregulated petrol and diesel prices, rate changes have been in the past put on hold by public sector oil companies, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), for reasons that appear to be non-commercial.
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Oil price tops USD 87 per barrel but petrol, diesel prices stay unchanged
By PTI
NEW DELHI: International oil prices jumped to the highest level since 2014, topping USD 87 a barrel but domestic petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for the 74th day in a row – a freeze that may be linked to ensuing assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Brent – the key global oil benchmark – soared to USD 87.7 per barrel mostly due to rising geopolitical tensions and supply-side disturbances due to Yemen’s Houthi group’s attack on oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates.
Also, global inventories are waning. The attack, some analysts believe, may lead to more hostile behaviour between the two power centres in the Middle East – Iran and Saudi Arabia.
But domestic fuel prices – which are directly linked to international oil prices – have not been revised for over two months now. Petrol costs Rs 95.41 a litre in Delhi and diesel is priced at Rs 86.67.
This price is after accounting for the excise duty cut and a reduction in VAT rate by the state government. Prior to these tax reductions, petrol price had touched an all-time high of Rs 110.04 a litre and diesel came for Rs 98.42.
These rates corresponded to Brent soaring to a peak of USD 86.40 per barrel on October 26, 2021.
Brent was USD 82.74 on November 5, 2021, before it started to fall and touched USD 68.87 a barrel in December. Prices, however, started to rise thereafter and on Tuesday soared to USD 87.7 per barrel – the highest since 2014.
Petrol and diesel prices have been in the past frozen before crucial elections. There was a 19-day price freeze on petrol and diesel ahead of Karnataka polls in May 2018, despite international fuel prices going up by nearly USD 5 per barrel.
However, no sooner were the elections over, oil companies rapidly passed on to customers the desired increase over 16-straight days post-May 14, 2018. Petrol price climbed by Rs 3.8 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.38 per litre after the hike.
Similarly, they had stopped revising fuel prices for almost 14 days ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat in December 2017.
These companies had also imposed a freeze on petrol and diesel prices between January 16, 2017, and April 1, 2017, when assembly elections in five states Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, were held.
During the 2019 general elections, they moderated the revision by not passing on all of the desired increase in rates to consumers, industry sources said.
The rates began to rise a day after the final phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections ended. The current 74-day hiatus is the second longest since daily fuel price revision was adopted in June 2017. Prior to this, there was a 82-day hiatus in rate revision between March 17, 2020 and June 6, 2020.
The 82-day hiatus in rate revision in 2020 followed the government raising excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each to mop up gains arising from falling international rates.
The government on May 6, 2020, again raised excise duties by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel.
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Congress launches digital campaign for its ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ against price rise
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday launched a digital campaign for the party’s “Jan Jagran Abhiyan” to highlight the issue of inflation and high fuel prices in the country. It will carry out its ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ from November 14 to 29 across the country by holding foot marches and street corner meetings on inflation.
The Congress also released a toll-free number 1800212000011 for people to connect with the party’s “Jan Jagran Abhiyan”. People can fill a digital form to become a part of the campaign against the price rise. A campaign song was also released by the party.
Congress’ social media head Rohan Gupta said the ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ will prove to be the “last nail in the coffin of BJP rule”. “People can give a missed call on the toll-free number to connect with the movement against inflation by the Narendra Modi government. After giving a missed call, people will get an SMS and have to fill a digital form attached to it,” he said.
Gupta added that the goal is to increase public awareness about inflation.
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BJP, MNS oppose Shiv Sena’s protest march against fuel price hike in Aurangabad
By PTI
AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad unit of the BJP and MNS criticised the Shiv Sena for organising a protest march on Saturday in the city against the Centre over the rise in fuel prices as well as inflation.
The protest march of the Sena, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in the state, will be between Kranti Chowk and Gulmandi, with the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut scheduled to participate.
While MNS district chief Suhas Dashrathe said that the Sena, despite being in power, had done nothing to mitigate Aurangabad’s water woes, his BJP counterpart Sanjay Kenekar said the MVA government under Uddhav Thackeray must cut state taxes on petrol and diesel and give relief to people.
The BJP gave a memorandum over this demand to the CM through the district collector.
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Further reduce excise duty on fuel: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to PM Narendra Modi
By PTI
JAIPUR: Amid increasing pressure from opposition parties to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to further slash excise duty on fuel to provide relief to people.
In a letter to the prime minister, Gehlot also requested that a direction be issued to oil companies to stop continuous increase in fuel prices so that people get the benefit of reduced excise duty, according to a statement.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJP in the state termed Gehlot’s statement a drama, saying his government charges the highest VAT on fuel in the country. The Central government on November 3 announced slashing excise duty on petrol by Rs 5 per litre and on diesel by Rs 10 a litre to give reprieve to consumers battered by record-high retail fuel prices.
Gehlot demanded that the Centre should further reduce excise duty by Rs 10 on petrol and Rs 15 on diesel. If the Centre reduces excise duty then automatically VAT in the state will reduce by Rs 3.40 on petrol and Rs 3.90 on diesel.
As a result, Rajasthan is ready to bear a revenue loss of Rs 3,500 crore, the chief minister said in the statement. He said after 2016, the Centre has reduced the state share in excise duty on fuel and states do not get any share from additional or special excise duty charged by the Centre. “Continuously reducing the share of states in taxes is against the spirit of fiscal cooperative federalism,” Gehlot said.
The chief minister said it is right of the state under the Constitution to impose tax for revenue collection for various development schemes. “Increasing excise duty excessively first and then reducing it and simultaneously creating a competitive environment among states to reduce VAT is also against the spirit of cooperative federalism,” Gehlot said.
He said during the coronavirus lockdown, the Centre had increased the excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and on diesel by Rs 13 per litre. From November 4, 2021, there has been talks of giving relief to the public by reducing Rs 5 on petrol and Rs 10 on diesel.
Gehlot said the reality is that in 2021 itself, the price of petrol increased by about Rs 27 and the price of diesel by about Rs 25. Out of the excessively hiked additional excise duty, only some relief was given, he said.
As such, the reduction in excise duty by the Centre appears to be insufficient, he added. The chief minister said that more than 22 per cent of the total revenue of Rajasthan comes from VAT on petrol and diesel.
As a reduction in VAT, the Rajasthan government has reduced by about Rs 3 per litre on petrol and Rs 3.8 per litre on diesel from January 29, 2021 till now. Due to this, there is a loss of Rs 2,800 crore in revenue, he said.
Due to the circumstances of COVID-19, there has been a decrease of Rs 20,000 crore in the revenue of the state in this financial year till October, he said. Gehlot said the decrease in revenue can be attributed to not providing GST reimbursement of Rs 5,963 crore to the state by the Centre.
He said even in such a situation, the state government did not allow the pace of development in the state to slow down by doing efficient financial management. The state government is ready to fulfil public announcements and promises made in the budget in a time-bound manner, he added.
The opposition parties in Rajasthan have been continuously demanding that the state government reduce VAT on fuel to give relief to people.
The politics over expensive fuel intensified after Congress-ruled Punjab cut down the price of petrol by Rs 10 a litre and diesel by Rs 5 per litre, claiming in an advertisement that fuel prices are lower than Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Targeting the chief minister over the issue, BJP state president Satish Poonia termed his statement a “nautanki” and reiterated the demand to reduce VAT. “The Gehlot government, which charges the highest VAT on petrol and diesel and provides expensive electricity, ridicules the Centre for inflation. Leave this gimmick, please give relief to people of the state from inflation,” Poonia tweeted.
Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Gulabchand Kataria, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party national convener and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal have also demanded reduction in VAT on petrol and diesel.
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Fuel tax cut: Petrol and diesel in MP’s border districts cheaper a week after pamphlets promised low rates in Maharashtra
By PTI
BHOPAL: After the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government slashed taxes and cess on fuel, rates of petrol and diesel have come down in the border district of Balaghat compared to Maharashtra, almost a week after residents received pamphlets promising them petrol cheaper by Rs 4 per litre in Gondia in the neighbouring state.
The fuel also became cheaper in the districts in Madhya Pradesh bordering Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
A day after the Union government slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on November 4 announced a four per cent cut in the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Rs 1.50 cut in the cess on the two fuels. Petrol and diesel in Balaghat have become cheaper by Rs 1.50 to Rs 2.50 per litre if compared to Gondia, Amar Singh Narde, a petrol pump owner in Balaghat said on Saturday.
He said petrol was sold at around Rs 121 per litre earlier and diesel around Rs 110 per litre before the Centre and the state government slashed taxes.
On Saturday, the prices of diesel and petrol in Balaghat stood at Rs 93.4 a litre and Rs 109.57 per litre, respectively, he said. On the other hand, petrol and diesel are being sold at Rs 111.71 and Rs 94.45 a litre, respectively, in Gondia, Narde said.
According to him, petrol and diesel have now become cheaper by Rs 11.74 a litre and Rs 17.16 a litre respectively, in Balaghat.
On October 31, a sizable number of people in Balaghat city got pamphlets in their newspapers informing them that petrol and diesel were cheaper by at least Rs 4 per litre in Gondia. The Hindi pamphlets mentioned the name of a dealer located at Jai Stambh Chowk in Gondia.
These pamphlets were distributed to attract people from Balaghat, which also borders Chhattisgarh, towards lower prices of petrol and diesel in Maharashtra, a petrol pump owner said.
Meanwhile, diesel has become cheaper in Anuppur, another district in MP bordering Chhattisgarh, by Rs 1.50 per litre, said Abhishek Jaiswal, a petrol pump owner based in Bijuri.
However, petrol is still costlier by Rs 4.5 a litre in the Anuppur district if compared to Chhattisgarh. Similarly, petrol and diesel have cheaper now by Rs 4 and Rs 5 per litre respectively in the Guna district of MP compared to neighbouring Rajasthan, said Pulkit Agrawal, a petrol owner in Binaganj, just 25 km from the state border.
He said since prices of petrol and diesel were at the higher side in MP earlier, people used to travel to Rajasthan for refuelling. On Saturday, diesel and petrol are being sold at Rs 91.98 and Rs 108.35 per litre, respectively, in the Guna district, Agrawal said.