Bhopal: For the common man in Madhya Pradesh, the New Year 2018 has begun on a costlier note.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government decided on Wednesday to impose 50 paisa cess on petrol and diesel. The state cabinet chaired by the chief minister decided to levy 50 paisa cess on per liter of petrol and diesel.
According to state government spokesperson Narottam Mishra the cess has been levied for financing infrastructure development and traffic improvement in the state.
The cabinet has assigned approval to an ordinance MP Motor Speed Bill 2018 which enabled government to levy petrol and diesel by 50 paisa per litre and the funds would be invested into infrastructure development and improvement of traffic, said Mishra.
The ordinance has now been sent to Commercial Tax Department and the levy would take time and isn’t immediate, he added.
Through the new cess the state government targets raising Rs 200 crore annually. The state’s finance minister Jayant Malaiya said the revenue generated from the cess would be used for betterment of roads and metro projects.
The decision to impose cess on petrol and diesel in MP comes more than two months after the state government had announced slashing VAT on petrol and diesel on October 13, 2017 ahead of Diwali.
On October 13, 2017 t he state’s finance minister Jayant Malaiya had announced 3% VAT cut on petrol and 5% VAT cut on diesel. He had also announced removing Rs 1.50 cess on diesel, but left the Rs 4 cess on petrol untouched. It had resultantly lowered per litre petrol price from Rs 74.75 to Rs 73.13 and diesel price from Rs 63.31 to Rs 59.37.
Meanwhile, the state cabinet on Wednesday also cleared proposals for sanctioning Rs 468 crores for upgrading 820 high schools and 540 higher secondary schools, Rs 90 crores for sportspersons promotion scheme and Rs 21 crores for the preparation of promising players for 2020 summer Olympics.