Gandhinagar, DeshGujarat

Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel said that contrary to other states, Gujarat has not increased Value Added Tax(VAT) on fuel even after decrease in related revenue due to cut in fuel prices.

He said Gujarat has effective VAT and cess on petrol at 25.46% while Tamil Nadu has 27%, Andhra Pradesh 31%, Maharashtra 26% + Re. 1 per liter, Rajasthan 30% + Re 1 per liter and Madhya Pradesh 31%. For this reason, one liter petrol is available in Ahmedabad for Rs. 63.70 while in Bangalore it is available for Rs. 66.18, Bhopal Rs. 66.76, Jaipur Rs. 65.91, Kolkata Rs. 67.92, Lucknow Rs. 67.35, Mumbai Rs. 68.14 and Patna Rs. 67.73.

He said present VAT and Cess on diesel is effectively 24.63% in Gujarat while in Madhya Pradesh it is 27% and in other states it is similar to Gujarat.He pointed out that while diesel price in Ahmedabad per liter is Rs. 55.24, it is Rs. 56.92 in Bhopal, Rs. 57.08 in Mumbai and Rs. 55.26 in Patna.

Patel said, decrease in Diesel and Petrol prices will lower down state’s annual income by Rs. 1700 crore, but the state has yet not increased the tax. While other states have increased VAT to balance the cut, the Government of Gujarat has passed on full benefit of price cut to people which is Rs. 980 crore in petrol and Rs. 3780 crore in diesel.