Opposition leaders on Wednesday reacted sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments that States ruled by them had not reduced value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel despite the Centre slashing excise duty and they should do so at the earliest in order to benefit the consumers.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Maharashtra counterpart, Uddhav Thackeray, pointed out how much the Centre owed their respective States. They also took the opportunity to talk about the Centre’s discrimination against States ruled by BJP rivals while meting out preferential treatment to BJP-ruled ones.
