THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The attempts of Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac to pass the buck of loads of taxes for petrol and diesel on the Union Government has drawn flak from KPCC president M M Hassan. Hassan said the minister is blaming the Centre for looting the people while he himself is leading a daylight robbery in the state. “Isaac is running away from his responsibility as the Finance Minister in the matter of the heavy state taxes being imposed on petrol and diesel,” Hassan said in a statement.
When the Centre’s excise duty on a litre of petrol comes to C21.48, the state government is charging C17.94 as sales tax over the current prices. The only difference is that the Centre is taxing C3.54/litre more for petrol and similarly on diesel. Hassan asked Thomas Isaac to stop simply beating about the bush on petrol-diesel taxes, and to say whether he is willing to do away with the sales tax increase with every hike effected by the Centre in the price of the fuel.