NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took Opposition chief ministers by surprise at a Covid review meeting by attacking them for not reducing taxes to contain fuel prices, triggering a volley of angry retorts from them.
Calling it injustice, he urged them to reduce value added tax (VAT) on fuel in their states in national interest to ease the burden on the common man. A big part of his concluding remarks during the meeting was on fuel prices. But since all others participants were muted, the fuming Opposition later accused Modi of playing politics and passing the buck.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the interaction was one-sided and misleading. “Facts shared by him were wrong. We have been providing a subsidy of `1 on every litre of petrol and diesel for the last three years.”
Telangana minister K T Rama Rao was caustic. “Name-calling states for not reducing VAT even though we never increased it; is this the co-operative federalism... #Telangana hasn’t increased VAT on fuel since 2014 & rounded off only once,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan ruled out any VAT relief saying, “It is neither fair nor feasible for the state government to further reduce taxes.” Kerala’s Finance Minister K N Balagopal said the increase in petrol and diesel rates was due to the cess and surcharge levied by the Centre, adding Kerala has not increased fuel tax since the last six years. His predecessor Thomas Issac was sarcastic in his tweet. “Elementary sir, we didn’t raise our tax rate as you did,” he quipped.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the Centre owed Rs 26,500 crore to the state and accused it of a step-motherly treatment, adding his government was not responsible for the rise in prices of petrol and diesel. Congress media in-charge R S Surjewala sought an account of the Rs 27 lakh crore collected by the BJP government from tax on petrol and diesel.
GST payout
Joining issue with CMs complaining of pending GST compensation, the Centre said in all Rs 2.78 lakh cr compensation was released to states for 2020-21 and that nothing was pending for FY21. As for 2021-22, Rs 7.35 lakh crore has been released under that head. Compensation of Rs 78,704 crore alone is pending for FY22, it said