Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has urged all the states and finance ministry to include petroleum products under the mechanism of Goods and Services Tax (GST). Looking into the interest of consumers, he said that there must be tax rationalization. The minister also noted that currently, there are two kinds of taxes on petroleum products – central excise and state value-added tax (VAT). Therefore, he said that such a move if implemented, would bring in uniform tax mechanism for Petroleum products all over the country.
On the contentious issue of daily fuel price revision, Pradhan has said that states are getting 42 per cent share in whatever levy is being collected by the Centre and clarified that domestic rates are determined by international prices. He also pointed out that there is no communication gap or mismatch between domestic and global prices. He explained that “Whatever is the international price we are passing exactly that to the Indian consumer. When it is increasing, we have to increase, when it is declining we have to decrease it. That is the practice in the country.”
The oil minister further said that 42 percent of the central tax is coming to states and states have their own tax mechanism. Therefore, he noted that a substantial portion of tax collection is utilized and coming to the states. According to the minister, the second round of auction of oil and natural gas blocks received good response from both international and domestic players. Besides, he said that the Centre needs funds for implementing various development and welfare projects in the country.