The soaring rates of petrol and diesel have called upon to revisit the debate on bringing petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on February 17 at a foundation stone laying ceremony for oil and gas projects in Tamil Nadu that his government is working to put gas under the Goods and Service Tax (GST). “We are trying to eliminate the cascading effect of different taxes. We are committed to bring natural gas under the GST regime,” PM Modi said, calling for global investors to invest in energy projects in the country.
People are paying more than the actual base price since the prices of both petrol and diesel have gone beyond the highest percentage of GST of 28%. On March 1, the base price of petrol and diesel (in Delhi) was just 33.26 and 34.97, respectively, according to the information published on the Indian Oil Website. On that day, the retail prices were ₹91.17 and ₹81.47. The tax part of petrol and diesel retail sale prices was 53.94 and 43.74 per litre, respectively. Central excise is a much larger component of taxation than state-imposed value-added taxes.
