Tamil Nadu slashes petrol price by Rs 3, PTR explains about not reducing diesel price

Chennai, Aug 17: Tamil Nadu's new Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan has said that the benefits of the reduction in petrol prices have reached the people directly and that the state government is conducting various studies to reduce the price of diesel.

"Considering the poor and middle class being affected by the rise in petrol prices, Chief Minister MK Stalin has ordered to reduce the tax on petrol to Rs 3 during the first day of the budget session and didn't spell anything on Diesel price reduction," PTR said.

In its election manifesto, the DMK had promised to cut the state tax on petrol by ₹5 per litre. However, it reiterated in the budget that the onus of providing relief to consumers also lies with the Union government.

AIADMK member AIADMK MLA Rajan Chellappa, who took part in the debate on the budget, said the reduction in petrol prices was welcome and that the government should take note of the reduction in diesel prices. Replying to the question, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan said that the government does not have any details on which category of people will get directly benefitted by the price reduction and the oil companies also does not share any such details with the state government.

He further added that two crore people have directly benefited from the reduction in petrol prices.

According to a study conducted by the government, it found that there are 4-5 categories of people who are getting directly benefit by the petrol price reduction and at least two crore people in the state are getting benefitted by the petrol price reduction.

He said owners of vehicles worth between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore have been found to be using diesel and various studies are being carried out to reduce the price of diesel. He also said that the diesel-intensive transport sector has decided to provide diesel subsidy in addition to fishermen.

The Minister also explained that the Government of Tamil Nadu is exploring the implementation of the scheme to ensure that the diesel subsidy reaches the farmers who use tractors for agricultural purposes.