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Journalism of Courage
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked all chief ministers to reduce state levies on diesel,kerosene and cooking gas to mitigate the impact of the price hike on the common man.
He has written to chief ministers to reduce levies on diesel,kerosene and domestic LPG in line with the duty cuts undertaken by the government,so as to provide some relief to the common man.
Taking the cue,few Congress-ruled states have already acted on the missive. While Meghalaya is likely to slash duty on LPG,West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,an ally of the ruling coalition,has withdrawn sales tax on cooking gas. Yesterday,Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a waiver of 5 per cent value added tax on kerosene.
The Congress-led UDF government in Kerala also today lowered diesel price by 75 paise a litre.
Even though the government has been under compulsion to maintain its fiscal and budgetary resource management targets and find additional resources to finance various welfare schemes,it has sacrificed its revenues from the oil sector on account of customs and excise duty in order to minimise the impact on the common man,the letter emphasised.
Finance secretary Sunil Mitra today said that the exchequer would lose around Rs 24,000 crore while states would lose around Rs 10,000-11,000 crore due to the rate cut.
