New Delhi: A war of words was sparked between the states and centre after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pointed out states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh which have not reduced the taxes on fuel.
Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackrey, took it to Twitter saying “in Mumbai, the price of one litre of diesel includes ₹24.38 which goes to the central government and ₹22.37 is the tax that comes to the state government.”
He further added, “for petrol, the price of one litre includes ₹31.58 which goes to the central government and ₹32.55 is the state tax.” He further also added that it is not a fact that the prices were hiked because of the state tax.
Responding to Thackrey, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said “the truth hurts, but facts speak for themselves. Maharashtra Govt has collected ₹79,412 crores as fuel taxes since 2018 & is expected to collect 33,000 cr this year. (Adding up to a whopping ₹1,12,757 cr).” He further questioned the Maharashtra government “Why did it not reduce VAT on petrol & diesel to provide relief to people?”
In a series of tweets, Puri said, “petrol will be cheaper if opposition ruled states cut taxes on fuel instead of imported liquor! Maharashtra govt imposes ₹32.15/ltr on petrol & Congress-ruled Rajasthan ₹29.10 But BJP ruled Uttarakhand levies only ₹14.51 & Uttar Pradesh ₹16.50.”
He also pointed out that “protest cannot challenge facts.” He also stated that BJP ruled states have a VAT on petrol and diesel in the range of ₹14.50 to ₹17.50 /ltr, while taxes levied by states ruled by other parties are in the range of ₹26 to ₹32 /ltr.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee retaliated on the issue of the petrol price hike and said that “the interaction was misleading and one-sided. The facts shared by him were wrong.” She further added that the West Bengal government has spent ₹1,500 crores in providing petrol and diesel subsidies in the last three years.