Telangana Minister for Industries, IT and Municipal Administration K.T. Rama Rao reacted sharply to the comments of Union Minister of Petroleum, Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri made on a social media platform on petrol and diesel prices in Telangana.
Mr. Puri said: “The curious case of Telangana. Imposes one of the highest VAT on Petrol & diesel - 35.20% on petrol & 27% on diesel. State Govt has collected ₹56,020 cr as VAT from 2014 to 2021. Projected to mop up ₹13,315 cr in 2021-22. Adds up to a huge ₹69,334 cr. Where has it gone?”
In his sharp reaction, KTR asked the Union Minister whether it was not true that the price increase was solely because of additional excise duties and cess imposed by NPA (non-performing assets) Govt. “Why don’t you advise PM to scrap cess so we can give petrol at ₹70 and diesel at ₹60 (per litre) all over India and isn’t it true that ₹26.5 lakh crore was collected as cess by NPA Govt”, Mr. Rama Rao rebutted the Union Minister.
Further, Mr. Rama Rao said: “Puri ji, you can’t run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. Price of barrel of crude oil back in 2014 and in April 2022 is almost the same $105. But, price of petrol in 2014 was ₹70 and now is at ₹120. No increase in VAT in Telangana. So where did the increase come from”.
Last week, Telangana Minister for Finance and Health T. Harish Rao explained in detail how the Centre had been constantly increasing the cess (excise duty) in the categories of base excise duty, special additional excise duty, additional excise duty-1 and additional excise duty-2 both on petrol and diesel.
He stated that the Central cess on per litre of petrol stood at ₹27.9 as on November 4, 2021 as against ₹9.48 as on September 14, 2012. Similarly, the cess on diesel had also reached ₹21.8 per litre from ₹3.56, respectively. He also explained that except for rounding off the points (paise) once after formation of the State, the TRS Government had not increased the tax on fuel oils ever.
