VAT charged on petrol & dieselin state won’t be reduced: Min

Patna: State finance minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary in the state assembly on Monday said that the value added tax (VAT) imposed on petrol and diesel in the state would not be reduced, as the VAT charged in Bihar is less than the developed states.Choudhary was giving the government's reply to the starred question of BJP member Lakhendra Kumar Raushan, who had sought to know if the Bihar government had any desire to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, like in Gujarat and UP, where the VAT charged was less than in Bihar.Choudhary said, “Though, the VAT charged on petrol, which is used by the rich and the diesel largely used by the poor, is more in Bihar. Even then, the tax charged on diesel in the state is less than that in Gujarat and UP.”Leader of opposition and senior BJP member Vijay Kumar Sinha also said that the prices of petrol and diesel were more in Bihar, and accordingly, asked the state government if it wanted to reduce their prices?Choudhary said that the prices of petrol and diesel in Bihar were high mainly due to their higher base prices fixed by petroleum pricing analysis cell, besides excise duty, along with cess and surcharges, imposed by the central government on it.Explaining it, Choudhary said that the petroleum pricing analysis cell has fixed the base price of petrol at Rs 63.8 per litre for Bihar, against Rs 57 for Gujarat. With central excise duty, cess and surcharges (total Rs 20), costs of transportation and dealer's margin, besides VAT, the petrol costs Rs 107 per litre in Bihar.Moreover, of the total excise, cess and surcharges, only Rs 1.40 per litre goes to the Centre's divisible pool of taxes that is given to states, including Bihar, as their share. In this situation, the state governments, including Bihar, impose VAT to mobilise money. Meanwhile, in the post-lunch session, the House passed by voice votes the third supplementary budget worth Rs 10,321.05 crore for the current financial year, ending March 31. The sum includes Rs 2,060.09 crore worth of capital expenditure to be used on the creation of assets, and Rs 8,260.96 crore of revenue expenditure to be spent on schemes, salary and other expenses.Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary adjourned the House for Holi, Shab-e-Barat and weekly off days to meet again on March 13.
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