SHILLONG, Oct 17: With petrol price in the Rs 100-mark in city, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has urged upon Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel by 50 per cent.
In a letter to the chief minister on Friday, HYC general secretary, Roy Kupar Synrem, called for the state government to take up the issue of hike in Central Taxes with regard to fuels with the appropriate authority in order to impress upon them to reduce the Excise Tax and thereby provide relief to the citizens.
“As per our knowledge and information, the factors that influence the rise in prices of fuels in the country and in the state are crude oil, freight and processing charges to the dealer; Excise Duty by the central government; dealer’s commission to the gas station and Value Added Tax (VAT) levied by the state government,” HYC general secretary said.
He, however, reasoned that the main reason for the hike in fuel prices is the central and state government taxes.
He said that at present, the Centre is charging about Rs 32-33 per litre of petrol as Excise Duty and the VAT charged by the state government is around Rs 22-23 per litre of petrol.
On diesel rates, Synrem said Excise Duty is about Rs 31-32 per litre and VAT to the tune of Rs 13-14 per litre is charged by respective state governments.
“If we club the two taxes together, people have to pay around 55% and about 50% respectively as taxes for petrol and diesel each time they fuel up their vehicles. This is the main reason for the wallet-busting fuel prices in our state also,” he added.
He also pointed out that the increase in fuel prices is incrementing transportation cost across the state and is directly or indirectly affecting prices of essential commodities.
