Business News: As Indian commoners are bearing the brunt of rising fuel prices every day and there were rumors going around that all fuels like petrol, diesel, etc. will be bought under GST umbrella, on Monday Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made it clear that no fuels will be bought under GST and there are no proposals for it currently.
When GST was officially introduced on July 1, 2019 midnight, most of the goods and their taxes were simplified, but the fuels like petrol, diesel, crude oil, natural gas and jet fuel also known as (Aviation Turbine Fuel) remained outside the cover of GST and were taxed VAT and Excise Duties by State and Central Governments in India.
The taxes levied on them kept increasing day by day adding up to the fuel prices every day. Since the taxes levied on these fuels contribute a huge income to the government, the government was very hesitant to lessen the percentage of taxes or try bringing under the purview of GST despite heavy public outrage.
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Due to the taxes levied, the price of fuels in local market largely remained the same despite any fall in crude oil prices globally. But the fuel prices do increase when the price of crude oil increases globally. Nirmala Sitharaman just made it clear today in parliament that there is no proposal to bring fuels under the GST umbrella and there are no recommendations as well.
In fact, she also addressed representatives from states to include fuels under GST to protect consumers from high prices. But she once again made it clear that inclusion of fuels under GST will be done after all possible discussions mainly about revenues for government. Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur also made his clarifications on the amount of tax levied.
He stated that currently excise duty on petrol is around Rs. 32 while it was at Rs. 19 previously. And, on diesel excise duty is around Rs.31 while it was Rs. 15 previously. When questioned why taxes have been raised, he stated that taxes have been raised to generate more revenue for infrastructural and development projects
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Petrol inflation rates have been raised from 7.38% to 15% this year and inflation rates have been raised to 12% from 6%.
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