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Opposing the Odisha government's decision to raise VAT (value added tax) on petrol and diesel prices by three per cent, the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will stage demonstrations at district levels on Friday demanding immediate roll back of the decision.
The state cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to hike VAT on the two petroleum products from 20 per cent to 23 per cent.
The hike has led to increase in petrol prices in the state by Rs 1.49 a litre and diesel by Rs 1.33 per litre.
BJP spokesperson Sajjan Kumar Sharma slammed the state government accusing it of being anti-people.
At a time when there is a trend of declining prices of fuel, the state government has increased the rates by imposing additional VAT, Sharma said. On Friday, state BJP leaders will take out a rally in Bhubaneswar against the hike.
"Earlier the state government had been opposing the Centre's decision to hike rates. We have decided that BJP will hit the streets against the fuel price increase, K V Singdeo, state BJP president said.
It may be noted that retail prices of petrol has fallen from Rs 74.03 a litre (as on July 1, 2014) to Rs 61.64 per litre now. Within a span of five and a half months, petrol prices have plunged by Rs 12.39 a litre while diesel prices have come down by Rs 9.17 a litre. The price fall has resulted in revenue loss of Rs 200 crore for the state government in this period.
The decision of the state government to raise VAT rates will have an annual implication of incremental revenue of Rs 90 crore for the state government by the end of this fiscal and Rs 360 crore annually based on present prices of petrol and diesel. After deregulation of prices of petrol and diesel, the central government had raised excise duty on these products twice.
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan government had also revised their VAT rates on petrol and diesel.
While the Madhya Pradesh government has raised VAT on petrol from 27 to 31 per cent and that of diesel from 23 per cent to 27 per cent Rajasthan has hiked its VAT rate on petrol from 26 per cent to 30 per cent and on diesel to 22 per cent from 18 per cent.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) today took out a rally against the state government's decision.
"Increase in diesel rates means increase in transportation cost which in turn would led to skyrocketing of rates of essential commodities. We are appealing the government to roll back the decision of additional three per cent VAT," said CPI leader Rama Krushna Panda.
