States to decide when petroleum products to be taxed under GST: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that petrol and petroleum products are already under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the states have to decide when they want petrol and petroleum products to be taxed under GST.

"Whenever the States are ready to bring in petroleum under the GST, another amendment will not be required. It is, now, up to the States and also the GST Council to take a call on when they want it to happen," Finance Minister Sitharaman said at a press conference here.

She further said that the petroleum products have been placed under the GST regime due to the foresight of the late Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

"Even as the GST was framed and rolled out, a lot of discussions had taken place about petrol and petroleum products. At that time my predecessor, late Arun Jaitleyji made a provision. The amendment was inclusive of zero-rated petroleum product provision in GST," she said.

"Petroleum as an item product has been included without any tax on it. So when the GST Council takes a call, a rate will be decided and the rate will be added," she added.

Finance Minister Sitharaman said this while addressing industry leaders at a post-Budget interaction organised by the Ministry of Finance in Kolkata. Similar interactions have been held in Mumbai and Chennai as well.