Skip to main content

Petrol, diesel to be under GST soon, says Dharmendra Pradhan

By
Petrol, diesel to be under GST soon, says Dharmendra Pradhan
Oil prices are on the decline over last few days during which it has come down by one rupee aggregately
With petrol and diesel kept out of the purview of GST, the state owned oil industry is losing Rs 200 billion annually in terms of input credit, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.
However, he said, with the GST regime stabilising and apprehensions over GST collection gradually receding, “it is a matter of time that petrol and diesel are brought under GST”.
“Refinery, pipeline, exploration… all are under GST. I am not getting back that money, the input credit. So, I am making it costly. I am losing Rs 200 billion per annum, only by government companies, in input credit. So, it is just a matter of time (before petrol and diesel are brought under GST),” he said.“The current taxes on petrol and diesel are like a cash cow. Nobody wants to lose this revenue. But it is not far away. It has to come to GST. States have their apprehensions.
They were right also because they did not know what would be the return on GST. They do not want to easily lose the perk,” Pradhan said.After ten months of GST, he said, there is a change in thinking among the states.
No rollback of decontrol in diesel and petrol pricing: Dharmendra Pradhan
 
“I am talking to the chief ministers, finance ministers; they are gradually coming to the point that it’s ok now, the time has come to make a start (on inclusion of petrol diesel in GST), let’s see,” he said.On a query from Business Standard on whether oil prices will be reduced before the next phase of elections, Pradhan hinted that the government is on the job.“We will not push common man too far; we are carrying out that endeavour. I appreciate your question but I am not in the business of making news.”He, however, said the oil prices are on the decline over last few days during which it has come down by one rupee aggregately.Asked about the options before the government to bring down the prices further, Pradhan said the government is looking into various factors involved in oil prices - the taxes of the Centre and states, the management of exchange rate, global geopolitical triggers (like Trump’s call for duty on European steel), etc. 
 
End to relentless petrol, diesel price rise brings no joy as cuts minuscule“Of these, only the first one is in government’s control,” he said.“The Centre, of course, cannot force the states to reduce VAT. Each state, irrespective of the party in power, has its own compulsions,” he said.On the initiative from states to reduce VAT, he said, “the one person who could take a lead was Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar.”Referring to a recent conversation with Parrikar, he said the latter had offered to bring down VAT on petrol and diesel to 14 per cent in Goa where the current rate is lowest among all the states at 17 per cent.“He is the one who could move the proposal on petrol and diesel in the GST Council,” Pradhan said.

The Business Standard, New Delhi, 08th June 2018

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more