In a decision that many other State Governments have already taken, the Karnataka Government has marginally reduced the sales tax on petrol, diesel and the Value Added Tax (VAT) on domestic cooking gas. The retail price of petrol will now come down by Rs. 1.35, diesel by Re. 0.65 and cooking gas by Rs. 10.34 a cylinder.
Following the reduction, petrol will now cost Rs. 57.15 a litre (down from Rs. 58.50 a litre), diesel will cost Rs. 39.15 a litre (down from Rs. 39.80), and cooking gas will cost Rs. 348.08 (instead of Rs. 358.42) a cylinder. The new rates are effective from midnight of Thursday.
Prior to the reduction of State levies on petroleum products, the base price (on which the State Government was to levy its taxes) of diesel was Rs. 31.10 a litre and petrol Rs. 42.75 a litre in Bangalore. On this price, the State Government levied 5 per cent entry tax for both petrol and diesel, apart from 20 per cent sales tax on diesel and 28 per cent sales tax on petrol. The base price varies from place to place depending on the distance from the refinery.
Briefing presspersons on the decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting here on Thursday, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Shobha Karandlaje said that the Government had decided to reduce sales tax of petrol by 3 per cent and that of diesel by 2 per cent. The Cabinet also reduced the VAT from 3 per cent to 1 per cent on LPG. The decrease in sales tax on petrol and diesel and VAT reduction on LPG will bring down the share of tax to the State Government by Rs. 275 crore.
Giving a comparison of the base price of petrol in the southern States vis-À-vis Karnataka, Ms. Karandlaje said that in Karnataka, the basic price of petrol per litre was Rs. 42.75 while it was Rs. 41.55 in Tamil Nadu, Rs. 42 in Maharashtra, Rs. 40.57 in Kerala and Rs. 41.80 in Andhra Pradesh.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment