Odisha: Assembly discusses price hike, govt says it utilises tax on fuel in welfare works

Bhubaneswar, Feb 23: The Opposition in the state Assembly today expressed concern over the skyrocketing fuel price.  While they asked the state government to reduce the tax on the fuel, the government  said that it is levying less tax than the Central government and utilising funds for the welfare activities. The issue was discussed through an Opposition sponsored adjournment motion. The Opposition members said that the people of the state who are mostly poor are hard hit by the price hikes of essential commodities. The price rise has been triggered due to unprecedented price rise on diesel and petrol effected by the Centre and state government. The Opposition members therefore  demanded  reduction in tax on the fuel to ease the burden on the poor consumers. Replying to the debate , Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari said that Goods and Service Tax (GST) had not been imposed on crude  oil, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, natural gas and edible liquor. The oil companies fix the price of petrol and diesel on the basis of basic price, Central excise duty, additional excise duty and Value Added Tax (VAT).   The Centre is collecting Rs 32.90 paise from the fuel, state government is levying Rs 21.40 paise towards 32 per cent VAT on it. The prevailing price of petrol in Bhubaneswar  stands Rs 91.66 ( as on February 23), while the petrol prices in Bhopal, Mumbai and Kolkata are Rs 98.96, Rs 97.34 and Rs 91.12 respectively. Similarly, the diesel price  is Bhubaneswar is Rs 88.63, while the diesel prices in Bhopal, Mumbai and Chennai are Rs 89.60, 88.44 and 86.31 respectively.