Delhi Congress Pradesh Committee (DPCC) chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee on Wednesday trashed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s decision to hike Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel and phrased it as an attempt to ‘mop’ up more money to the ‘tax-kitty’ by milking the people dry.
Though the prices of the crude oil in the international market has been on a free fall for the past one year, Mukherjee said, “It was an unwarranted decision to hike VAT on petrol from 25 per cent to 27 per cent and diesel from 16.6% to 18% per cent per litre (96 paise and 53 paise respectively) which would further burden people already crushed by the soaring prices of essential commodities.”
The DPCC spokesperson termed the VAT imposition as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘uncalled’ and said, “The AAP Government, instead, should have revved up the tax collection machinery.”
“The AAP Government had raised the VAT on petrol and diesel twice in the last seven months, from July 2015 to January 2016. In July, VAT of petrol had been raised from 20% to 25% and diesel from 12.5% to 16.6%,” added Mukherjee.
The DPCC chief spokesperson also said the Delhi Congress had strongly objected to the Delhi VAT (2ndAmendment Bill), passed just five days after passing the Budget in 2015, as by making this amendment, the AAP Government had also taken away the power to legislate to deliberate on the hikes on fuel, as VAT could be levied on goods enlisted in the 4th Schedule of the ACT (including petrol and diesel) at differential rates from 12.5% up to 30%, instead of an earlier flat rate 20%.