Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request to certain States, including Tamil Nadu, to cut taxes on fuel, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said on Wednesday that it was neither fair not feasible for the State government to reduce taxes further, given that the Union government’s taxes remained exorbitant.
“We reiterate that the sole, simple and fair approach to improving the situation for all, is for the Union government to remove the levy of cesses and surcharges and revert to the rates that prevailed in 2014,” the Minister said in a press release. “We hope that the Union government will heed this reasonable request in the true spirit of co-operative federalism,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu government had repeatedly urged the Union government to reduce the cesses and surcharges and merge them with the basic tax rates so that the States got their rightful share from the proceeds of the Union government taxes, he said.
