Supporting the idea of bringing petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG (cooking gas) under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government is in favour of this idea, but they are waiting for a consensus from the state governments in this respect. The minister expressed hope that a consensus will be reached among the states to bring petroleum under GST. At present, different petroleum products are taxed differently across states.
Jaitley said ‘The constitution amendment which has been passed and ratified by state assemblies have kept petroleum and petroleum products as part of the GST, but a decision to levy the GST on petroleum can be taken only after the GST council takes a decision. We don’t need to amend any law if petroleum products are to be brought into the GST, but only after the council takes a decision is when it will be introduced.’
Reacting to the charge that petrol and diesal prices were not coming down in line with global prices, Finance Minister said it has to be kept in mind that a large number of duties on these products were imposed by the states. He added that on the Centre's advice, a large number of states had brought down these taxes but the UPA (Congress and its allies) states did not do so. On tax collection from GST, he said that there is continuous progress and the states are being paid according to the legislation.
