‘No tax cut on fuel to control price hike’

The state government on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of following Goa,Delhi and other states in reducing taxes on petrol and diesel to control the sky-rocketing prices. “Gujarat has one of the lowest per capita tax burden in the country at Rs 6,798,so the government has no plans to reduce it further. We reduced it in 2008 by 3%,’’ said state spokesperson and senior Cabinet Minister Jay Narayan Vyas.

Vyas further said,“Goa has a per capita tax burden of Rs 21,928,Haryana has Rs 8,130,Maharashtra has Rs 7,447,Punjab has Rs 7,291 and Tamilnadu has a per capita tax burden of Rs 7,723. On the other hand,Bihar,UP and other large states have a lower per capita burden due to their large population.’’

At present the VAT on petrol in the state is 23% and cess on it 2%,while the VAT on diesel is 21% with a cess of 2%.