Criticzing the Chhattisgarh government for withdrawing the Value Added Tax (VAT) relaxation on petrol and diesel, BJP national general secretary and state’s former chief minister Raman Singh said that the economic bankruptcy and financial mismanagement in the state had compelled the government to take the decision.
Singh while talking to media persons here at state BJP headquarters Ekatma Parisar onThursday said the state government was attempting to snatch money from the pockets of state populace by imposing VAT on petrol and diesel. This was nothing new earlier it had hiked the power tariff in the same manner, he said.
The entire economy will have to suffer because of the hike in price of petrol and diesel as it will ultimately increase the cost of essential commodities with the increase in transportation cost, headded. Notable, after the rollbackof VAT relaxation on petrol and diesel prices of these products will increase by Rs 2.25 inthe state.
Party state spokesperson Sanjay Shrivastava also in a statement said earlier the land registry rate was hiked by five times now the VAT rate has also been hiked for diesel/petrol.
He said the move will trigger price rise. It means,as if the Congress government had already decided to go for it. It will put additional burden on low and middle income category citizens of the state. He further said that to provide relief to the people of the state after increase in crude oil price at international market, the then Raman Singh led government had slashed theVAT rate on petrol-diesel.
VAT imposed on instruction of Central Finance Commission: Cong
RAIPUR: Terming criticism of BJP for price rise of petrol and diesel due to imposition of Value Added Tax (VAX) bystate government as baseless, state Congress on Thursday said the relaxation of VAT on petrol and diesel has been taken back on instruction of Central Finance Commission.
It is mandatory for the state government to follow the instruction of the commission,it said. In a statement state general secretary of the PCC,Shailesh Nitin Trivedi questioned where the sensitivity of the BJP goes when the price of petroleum product is hiked by Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.
Trivedi further said if the union government dares to take back central excise and custom duty the price of petrol and diesel may decrease to a considerable amount of Rs 10-15. “Where had these BJP leaders gone when Modi government had hiked the price”,he further questioned. “It had even hiked the price when crude oil price in international market was low”, he said.Since 2014 the central excise duty on petroleum products had been hiked by Modi government 12 times, he added.