Once again exposing the duplicity of the Congress party and its allies, the Congress-JDS Karnataka government has decided to increase the VAT on fuel, thereby increasing the prices of Petrol and Diesel in the state. The VAT on petrol has been raised from 28.75% to 32%, while the same on Diesel is increased from 17.73% to 21%. After the increase, petrol will cost ₹70.84 and diesel will cost ₹64.66 in the state.
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It can be noted that when fuel prices were high until a couple of months ago, Congress president Rahul Gandhi regularly criticised the Modi government for the same. He has been demanding that fuel taxes should be brought under GST, which he describes as Gabbar Singh Tax. The Congress president has been demanding that the government should bring down the fuel prices.
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The tax component in fuel prices is quite high in India, and it has been demanded to be reduced for a long time. Ironically, Rahul Gandhi’s own governments have been refusing to do, while he keeps attacking the BJP government. In October last year, the union government had reduced fuel prices by ₹2.50. The excise duty was slashed by ₹1.50, while the oil marketing companies were asked to take a cut of ₹1.00. Simultaneously, the finance ministry had requested the states to cut the VAT by a similar amount so that fuel prices come down by ₹5.00.
While most NDA ruled states had reduced VAT accordingly, states ruled by opposition parties had refused to do so, including Karnataka. With today’s increase in taxes, it again proves that while opposition parties attack the central government to earn political mileage, they themselves want the high taxes on fuel to continue and can’t let go the revenue it brings.
Fuel prices have come down substantially over last several weeks, following the reduction in international crude prices.