Maha sent 3 reminders to Centre to bring petro items under

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said Tuesday the state government has sent three reminders of its proposal to the Centre to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Speaking to reporters here, the minister said if petrol and diesel are brought under the GST tax slabs of 28 per cent or 18 per cent, it will greatly bring down their retail prices at a uniform level nationally.

"We already reduced taxes on petrol and diesel 6 months back. It does not make sense to reduce it further as the Centre also has not done so.

"The only solution to bringing down (fuel) prices is to bring it under the GST. We have sent a proposal to the Centre to do so and also sent three reminders until now to consider our proposal," he said.

Referring to the September 10 'Bharat Bandh' over fuel price hike, Mungantiwar said those who had staged the protest should now back our proposal.

"Protesting outside and not supporting our proposal to bring petrol and diesel under GST is only 'tamasha' done to politically exploit the high international crude prices," the BJP minister said.

He said the next meeting of the GST Council is scheduled on September 28 and hoped the Congress and opposition-ruled states would support Maharashtra's proposal.

As per official data of the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Maharashtra ranks first in terms of highest state tax on Petrol and third in terms of highest state tax on diesel.

Ironically, as per PPAC data there are two separate tax rates for Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai for petrol (39.12 per cent) and 24.78 per cent for diesel, and 38.11 per cent for petrol and 21.89 per cent for diesel for rest of Maharashtra.