Surcharge on food, FMCG items

The BJP may have staged a noisy walkout in Parliament against the Centre’s move to hike prices of petrol and diesel during the presentation of this year’s Union Budget, but the Uttarakhand government has imposed a new surcharge, hiking the prices of food and FMCG items.

In a new notification, the government has imposed 0.5 to 1 per cent surcharge on a series of FMCG and other food items.

Just two days after the prices of petroleum products were hiked in the Union Budget, the state government also imposed a surcharge of 0.5 per cent on items where VAT is 4 per cent. On other items where VAT is 12.5 per cent, the surcharge has been increased to 1 per cent.

The move is being seen as the state government’s fresh attempt to earn additional revenue of Rs 125 crore in the face of acute financial crunch. The government is facing a burden of Rs 4,000 crore in the wake of the 6th Pay Commission, for which it is trying hard to generate additional revenue.