The truth hurts says Hardeep Puri, asks why Maharashtra didn’t reduce VAT on petrol, diesel

New Delhi, Apr 28: On Wednesday during a meeting with the Chief Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the states run by the Opposition to reduce tax on fuel.

He said that a few states who could not reduce prices last November, should do it now. He said that states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala,Maharashtra and Jharkhand did not reduce tax on fuel and should do it now.

Had Karnataka not reduced its tax on petrol and diesel, the state government would have earned an additional revenue of Rs 5,000 crore, the PM said.

While the Opposition parties criticised the PM, Union Minister Hardeep Puri took to Twitter and revealed statistics while questioning why Maharashtra did not reduce VAT on petrol and diesel to provide relief to the people.

The truth hurts, but facts speak for themselves.

Maharashtra Govt has collected ₹79,412 crore as fuel taxes since 2018 & is expected to collect 33,000 cr this year. (Adding up to a whopping ₹1,12,757 cr). Why did it not reduce VAT on petrol & diesel to provide relief to people, Puri said in a tweet.

PM Modi said that the Centre waived the duty last year to reduce the burden on the people. Some states abided by our appeal reduce taxes, while others did not. This is in a way detrimental to the economy of other states.

Gujarat could have made an additional Rs 3,500 crore had it not reduced the burden. He however added that he is not criticising, but only appealing to the state Chief Ministers.

The Prime Minister said that in order to reduce the load of petrol and diesel prices central government has reduced the excise duty and had requested the states also to reduce taxes. some states reduced taxes but some states did not pass on the benefits to the people, leading higher cost of petrol and diesel in these states. This is not only injustice towards the people of the state but harms the neighbouring states also. He said that states like Karnataka and Gujarat undertook the tax reduction for the welfare of the people despite revenue loss while their neighbouring states earned revenue by not reducing tax.

Similarly, the Prime Minister said that last November a request was made to reduce VAT but many states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jharkhand did not do so for some reason. The Prime Minister said 42 per cent of the revenue at centre goes to State governments. "I urge all the states to work as a team in this time of global crisis following the spirit of cooperative federalism", The Prime Minister requested.