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Over 4,200 petrol and diesel retailers in Maharashtra, excluding the financial capital, kept the pumps shut for a day demanding uniform taxation, which would ensure parity in fuel prices across the state.
"Due to the autonomy on tax collection given to local bodies, there is a differential of Rs 5 to 7 per litre of diesel and petrol between two areas and dealers on the fringes of a town are losing business," Uday Lodh, the president of Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers Association told PTI from Ratnagiri.
The differential arises primarily due to the Local Body Tax (LBT), wherein the local bodies have been given the liberty to tax.
Additionally, there is also the State Specific Charge (SSC), which is the component passed on to the users by the oil marketing companies towards payment of octroi when the crude lands in Mumbai.
"Our first request is to scrap SSC, but in the interim because of the multiple issues involved, we are asking for a 3 per cent relief on the sales tax," Lodh said.
He said the association is not against the payment of taxes and is also sensitive to the revenue requirements of the bodies. Keeping in mind the same, Lodh said the association had submitted a solution to the state government which has not been implemented.
"We ideally want a single tax and the solution we gave also mentions the same," he said.
Lodh said 30 crore litres of petrol and diesel gets sold in the state, one of the most industrialised ones which is among the top in economic indicators, on a daily basis, which results in the accretion of around Rs 7.5 crore in revenues to the state government and local agencies' coffers through taxes.
While all the 227 dealers in Mumbai kept the pumps operational, about 25-30 company-owned retailers across the state were not part of the strike.
All the pumps will be resuming operations from 6 am tomorrow, he added.
