Gujarat Government, led by Vijay Rupani, has cut down VAT (value-added-tax) on fuel by 4% to comply with the directions issued by the centre last week.
Announcing the move at Gandhinagar, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that the government is cutting down VAT on fuel prices 4% with an immediate effect. The effective prices on petrol and diesel post the tax cut will go down by INR2.93 and INR2.72 respectively.
The central government last week, had announced cutting the excise duty on fuel to help lessen the customer burden at a time when the international prices are gradually going up. After the centre’s announcement, Union Petroleum Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan had urged the states to take initiates to cut the VAT by 5% and make fuel cheaper for the end users.
Gujarat, being a BJP rules state, has become the first state to implement the same. In an interaction with the media recently, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has also hinted towards making such move soon.
Though the BJP rules stated are expected to announce the move before Diwali, the other states have shown their resistance in implementing the same. Kerala government has already rejected the proposal stating that the move will be unfavourable to the state as it significantly cuts down on the revenue.