It will be quite some time before one can expect the petroleum products to come under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Friday has proved.
Amidst speculation ahead of the 45th GST Council meeting that some of the petroleum products could be brought under the GST's ambit, finance minister Nirmal Sitharaman, also the chairperson of the Council, clarified that the issue was in the meeting's agenda purely because the Kerala High Court wanted it to be discussed.
"We did discuss the issue and most states were of the opinion that it is not the right time to include petroleum products under GST. This is what the Council has decided now, and this is what we are going to report to the Kerala High Court," the finance minister said in her press briefing after the meeting.
The Kerala High Court in a June order had directed the GST Council to forward a petitioner's representation to the Centre to bring petrol and diesel under GST and take an appropriate decision within three weeks.
The decision of the Council to include the issue in the meeting's agenda was just to comply with that order as most states felt that the taxes on fuel are needed to manage their already meagre revenues.
Tamil Nadu finance minister P Thiagarajan in fact said in his speech at the Council that state taxation of petrol and diesel remains one of the last vestiges of any state's right to manage their own revenues since the arrival of GST had stripped away most of their rights originally written into the Constitution.
"As such we are reluctant to give up any of these few remaining rights, and so are fundamentally opposed to bringing these products into the ambit of GST. Our concerns are increased manifold by the Union Government raising its taxation on petrol and diesel between 500% and 1,000% between 2014 and today," he emphasised.
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