Kerala and Maharashtra governments will oppose any move to bring petrol and diesel under the products and Services Tax (GST) regime.
The 45th GST Council meeting, chaired by minister of finance Nirmala Sitharaman, to be persisted Citizenship Day and a proposal on taxing petrol and diesel under the only national GST is probably going to be haunted.
"Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman will chair the 45th GST Council meeting at 11 AM in Lucknow tomorrow. The meeting are going to be attended by MOS Shri @mppchaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States," the Finance Ministry has tweeted.
A day before the scheduled meeting, the Kerala government said that it'll vehemently oppose any move to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime as which will further reduce revenue generation for the state and asserted that the Centre should reduce its levies on the 2 commodities to supply relief to the folk .
Central excise and state VAT (Value Added Tax) structure for nearly half the retail asking price of petrol and diesel. Bringing them under the GST would impact revenue generation for the states
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Talking to PTI, Kerala minister of finance K N Balagopal said the state will strongly oppose if there's any move to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime. He said the fuel prices skyrocketed thanks to the large increase of its cess by the Centre and if the Union Government reduces the cess, which can help in bringing down the costs of petrol and diesel. If petrol and diesel are brought under the GST regime, Kerala will lose Rs 8,000 crore annually, said the minister.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar also opposed any such move. The Nationalist Congress Party leader said that the Centre is liberal to levy taxes but it shouldn't touch areas that are under the state's jurisdiction, reported Hindustan Times.
"If there's any move to try to to so, the government will put forth its view in tomorrow's GST Council meeting," Pawar, who is additionally the minister of finance of the state, was quoted as saying.
In the meeting, the GST council may review rate of over four-dozen items and extend till New Year's Eve , tax concessions on 11 COVID-19 drugs. Besides bringing petrol and diesel under the only national GST tax, it's going to also take up a proposal to treat food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy as restaurants and levy a 5 percent GST tax on supplies made by them.