Cooking gas price hiked by Rs 24 in MP

Bhopal, Apr 8 (UNI) Oil companies and the Madhya Pradesh government are caught in a blame-game over rise in price of cooking gas by Rs 24 in the state.

Principal Secretary (Commercial tax) G P Singhal blamed the oil companies for the price rise in the garb of entry tax.

An Indian Oil Company (IOC) spokesperson, however, refused to take the onus for the price rise and pointed out that entry tax had been raised as the government had raised the amount.

The new price will be effective from tomorrow midnight.

''Before implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in April, the government used to collect 13.8 per cent commercial tax and one per cent entry tax,'' Mr Singhal said.

''The government slashed commercial tax to four per cent, while entry tax was raised to 9.5 per cent.'' Mr Singhal said the government expected a loss of Rs 63 crore in view of reduction in commercial tax. However, the oil companies did not reduce prices of cooking gas.

The government will bear an additional burden of Rs 10 crore due to the reduced rate.

The IOC spokesperson contended that price rise occurred due to increase in entry tax and the Union Petroleum Ministry had been informed. According to official sources, the price of cooking gas should have gone down after reduction in commercial tax but the oil companies hiked the price in order to make up for their loss.

Sources said the Centre had determined prices of cooking gas and the state government had no role to play in it.

They added that there was a provision that the Centre could grant subsidy to states in case of revenue loss. In this case, the Centre must grant subsidy to oil companies so that customers were not overburdened.

UNI