Fuel prices in Haryana lower than in neighbouring states: Min

Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister Captain Abhimanyu today said fuel prices in the state are lower than that in neighbouring states and Union Territory Chandigarh.
Talking to reporters here, Abhimanyu said the petrol price of Rs 67.91 per litre in Haryana is lower than Rs 73.30 per litre in Punjab; Rs 68.49 per litre in Chandigarh; Rs 70.89 per litre in Uttar Pradesh, and Rs 70.94 per litre in Rajasthan.
Diesel is also priced lower at Rs 56.67 per litre in Haryana against Rs 56.97 per litre in Punjab, Rs 57.67 per litre in Chandigarh, Rs 56.87 per litre in Delhi and Rs 60.85 per litre in Rajasthan.

He was asked to respond whether the state government would lower VAT on fuel prices, as the Centre has asked the states to lower the burden of rising oil prices on consumers.
The minister said, "the taxes on petroleum products are already lower than that of prevailing in neighbouring states."
However, he said that neighbouring states including Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, UT Chandigarh had been able to bring parity in fuel prices to a large extent as part of their initiative to stop diversion of petroleum products.

He further said the northern states would be open to take any call on revising tax on petroleum products.

In reply to another question, he said that after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the tax incidence on 89 essential commodities has been reduced while 149 items have been fully exempted from tax.
Efforts have been made to ensure that goods of basis necessity are made available to the people at cheaper rates as compared to earlier, he said.
While describing the first three months of implementation of GST as a "success", Abhimayu said that Haryana is expected to earn revenue of about Rs 20,000 crore through GST in nine months.
He said the state has also received an amount of Rs 476 crore as compensation for the month of July and August.

"Figures so far assured that we are on the right track," he said adding that the increase in number of new dealers is big achievement for the state.
In reply to another question, Abhimanyu said gram panchayat's income of up to Rs 20 lakh would be exempted from tax under the GST.
He said the government grants have been kept out of the ambit of the Act. In case, the income of gram panchayats is above Rs 20 lakh, the state government is empowered to take decision at its own level.
The minister said Haryana has registered 1,01,409 new dealers under the GST taking the total number of taxpayers in the state to 3,31,786.

The aggregate is 44.02 per cent of the migrated dealers who were earlier registered under VAT and Services Tax in Haryana.
Abhimanyu said Haryana stands to earn assured revenue of Rs 19,793 crore in 2017-18 after implementation of GST at the rate of Rs 1,649.4 crore per month.
He said that total revenue collected from GST goods in July and August worked out to about Rs 2,822 crore.
The minister said the number of traders who opted for the Composition Scheme in the state is 25,979. The percentage of Composition taxpayers to total taxpayers works out to 7.83.