People of Chandigarh will have to shell out more for petrol and diesel from May 7 onwards with the UT Administration on Wednesday announcing a hike in prices by enhancing the VAT, in a bid to generate revenue amid financial crisis due to coronavirus pandemic.
The new prices of petrol will now be Rs 68.62 per litre and diesel would be Rs 62.02 per litre. The decision to increase the fuel price was taken at the meeting of Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore on Wednesday.
“The Administrator decided to enhance VAT in respect of petrol and diesel. The new prices of petrol will now be Rs 68.62 per litre and diesel at Rs 62.02 per litre. The UT prices of petrol and diesel will continue to be slightly lesser than the neighbouring states,” said a senior UT officer.
He said that the move is aimed at revenue generation, which was badly hit due to curfew in the city amid Coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier, the price of petrol and diesel in Chandigarh were Rs 65.82 and Rs 59.30 a litre respectively Notably, the Administration had a day before decided to levy additional cess on fuel and liquor prices to fill its coffers.
The liquor shops, which opened after 41 days as curfew was lifted and Chandigarh was placed under lockdown on May 4, had seen long queues of customers. Recently, the Delhi Government has imposed a 70 percent “special Corona fee” on sale of liquor besides raising the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel to generate revenue.
The Punjab Government had also on Tuesday amended the value added tax to hike rates of diesel and petrol by about Rs 2 per litre.