farmers

petrol

state government

Value Added Tax

diesel

Sudhir Mungantiwar

crude oil

Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee

Decision taken to increase aid for drought-hit, state says.The price ofhas been increased by Rs 3.03 per litre starting April 22 as thehas increased its. While petrol used to cost Rs 74.42 per litre, it will now cost Rs 77.45 per litre. The price ofwill remain the same.State finance ministertold Mumbai Mirror that the prices of petrol had been brought down by centre, but the state government wanted to get additional revenue to help farmers.A finance department officer said, “This year, due to demonetisation, the income from stamps and registrations had gone down. Now excise is suffering. The easiest way out for us was to tax petrol because mostly the rich use it. Fewer people will resist and we get an added source of revenue to aid.”The sudden decision has sparked confusion with Ravi Shinde of the Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association saying that there was no reason why the price should be so high here when the prices ofglobally were falling. “Diesel won’t be taxed and truckers can anyway fill their tanks in neighbouring states but motorists with petrol vehicles will have nowhere to go,” said Shinde.Theled-government, which has repeatedly talked of transparency, has seemingly kept the decision under wraps, as there have been no tweets or press releases about the same.chief spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “The BJP always talks of transparency but they have done this hefty price hike in a discreet manner. The CAG has already pulled them up for mismanagement of finances. They had increased the petrol price during the drought two years back but this continues even after there was surplus of rain last year. The MPCC condemns the price hike and we will protest.”