Rahul Gandhi demands withdrawal of tax on petrol, diesel

Rahul Gandhi demands withdrawal of tax on petrol, diesel

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has demanded withdrawal of taxes on petrol and diesel, a day after the Centre hiked taxes.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted “the people are suffering economically due to the coronovirus, inspite of reducing the price, the tax has been raised from Rs 10 to Rs 13 which is not a good decision and it should be withdrawn.”

The Centre on Tuesday raised the excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 per litre, respectively. The total tax component (Centre and state in Delhi) is Rs 49.42 on petrol and Rs 48.09 on diesel. Compare this with the base price of the two products on Wednesday and the tax load becomes clearly visible. The base price of petrol currently is mere Rs 17.96 a litre and diesel just Rs 18.49 a litre.

On May 4 Delhi government raised VAT on petrol and diesel to 30 per cent of price, the state tax rate on the two products has risen to Rs 16.44 and Rs 16.26 per litre, respectively.

Together with central and state taxes, freight, and dealers’ commission, petrol on Wednesday is priced at Rs 71.26 a litre in Delhi while diesel’s current selling price stands at Rs 69.39 a litre.