Upset over the imposition of infrastructure development (ID) fee on petrol and diesel by the Punjab Government, fuel pump owners in the State on Friday threatened not to buy petroleum products if the decision was not rolled back. They have given three-days’ time to the Punjab Government and oil marketing companies till May 25 to withdrew the ID fee besides bringing the tax rates on fuel at par with the neighbouring States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and UT Chandigarh.
Describing the ID fee as “detrimental” to the interest of fuel pump owners, dealers under the banner of Punjab Petroleum Dealers’ Association claimed that the “ill-conceived” move of the SAD-BJP Government will cause “drop in revenue to the State exchequer on account of lesser sales and encourage large scale smuggling of petrol and diesel from the neighbouring States”.
Dealers feared that a 30-35 per cent drop in sale volume with anticipated decrease in revenue of Rs400-500 crore from diesel alone. Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday had announced to impose ID fee of Re one per litre on diesel and hiked the ‘ID Fee’ on petrol from the existing Re one to Rs two per litre as part of its decision to upgrade rural and urban infrastructure.
“The imposition of ID fee will hit our trade hard as it will encourage smuggling of fuel on large scale, thus adversely affecting our sales volume,” said Association president JP Khanna. “We have initially decided to give three-day notice to the Punjab government and oil marketing companies till May 25, seeking rollback of ID fee and bring the tax rates on fuel on par with neighbouring states. And thereafter, we will not be purchasing fuel,” Khanna said.
The maximum impact of levy of ID fee will be witnessed on about 600 fuel pumps located in bordering districts of Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot etc, they said. Punjab has a total of 3,248 fuel pumps across the State with daily diesel and petrol sale of 94 lakh litres and 25 lakh litres respectively in the state. Dealers across the State on Friday assembled to announce their agitation against Punjab Government's move of levying ID fee.
After the imposition of ID fee levy, petrol and diesel prices in Punjab went up by Rs1.30 and Rs1.13 respectively. Petrol per litre in Punjab is costlier by Rs7.96 against in Chandigarh, Rs5.25 in Haryana and Rs5.27 per litre in Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, diesel is dearer by Rs1.77 as against in Chandigarh, Rs1.46 in Haryana and Rs1.66 in HP, they said. Punjab levies maximum taxes on petrol and diesel as against taxes prevailing in Chandigarh, Haryana and HP. Taxes on petrol and diesel in Punjab are 33.8 per cent and 14.5 per cent respectively.
Chandigarh levies tax of 20 per cent on petrol and 9.68 per cent on diesel, Haryana charges 25 per cent on petrol and 12.06 per cent diesel while Himachal imposes 27 per cent on petrol and 11.68 per cent on diesel, they said. “Punjab, at present, levies highest taxes on diesel across the country,” claimed Khanna.
Traders said that the transporters, who consume almost 55 per cent of total diesel sales in the state, will shift to neighbouring states for refill, hitting their trade. Traders further said that they were also kept in the dark about the ID levy despite a committee was formed under the chairmanship of MlA NK Sharma, BJP leader Narrotam Dev Ratti to redress their grievances.