CHANDIGARH: Due to high taxes on petroleum products, Punjab is losing huge revenue to the tune of Rs 250 crore per year as smuggling of petrol and diesel from Haryana, where the prices are lower, has become rampant.
Petrol and diesel prices in Punjab have shot up by Rs 2.43 and Rs 3.53 respectively in the last three weeks. Petrol pumps in the state are losing business, especially in the border districts of Sangrur, Patiala, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Mohali, Fathegarh Sahib, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Mansa.
Sources said petrol and diesel are smuggled in from Haryana and Chandigarh where they are cheaper by approximately Rs 8.24 per litre and Rs 2.23c per litre, respectively. Also, residents of Chandigarh and areas bordering Haryana prefer to fill their tanks from that state instead of Punjab.
Paramjit Singh Doaba, president of Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association of Punjab, said, “A heavier VAT on petroleum products will not translate into extra revenue, as is being made out by excise and taxation department authorities in a tacit understanding with unscrupulous dealers.” He warned that if the Punjab government did not heed to the demands of pump owners, they would intensify their protest by shutting down petrol pumps across the state. “We have submitted numerous representations to the government, but it has turned a deaf ear to our pleas, leaving us with no choice but to resort to an agitation,” he said.
Sources in the excise department pointed out that it had come to light that the pumps in Bathinda, Fazilka and Mansa districts were getting petrol from Dabwali and Sirsa in Haryana at cheaper rate — by about Rs 8 per litre.
Most of these pumps are of political leaders or of their close aids and so, no official can touch them, the sources said. Claiming that the unreasonably high VAT on petrol and diesel in Punjab was a scam of enormous proportions, Singh said, “Rather than adding to Punjab’s revenues, it has set the state exchequer back by a whopping Rs 40,000 crore in the past 17 years. The disparity in taxes in comparison to neighbouring Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh is causing the Punjab government massive revenue losses.
Matters have now gone from bad to worse with Punjab’s revenue from VAT on petrol and diesel declining by Rs 190 crore in the first half of 2017-18 in comparison to the corresponding period last year.”
“While diesel sales in Chandigarh increased substantially by 57 per cent in December 2017, Mohali recorded 18.937 per cent decline in sales. It is no coincidence that the per outlet sales of Chandigarh are among the highest in India and those of Punjab the lowest,” he said.