Maharashtra slashes VAT on petrol, diesel day after Uddhav Thackray slammed Centre's excise cut

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has decided to cut the Value-added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel a day after the Narendra Modi government announced it would decrease the excise duty on the two essential commodities. The Uddhav Thackeray government said it is cutting the state tax by Rs 2.08 per litre on petrol and Rs 1.44 per litre on diesel. A statement issued by the government said the state exchequer will have to bear an annual loss of Rs 2,500 crore as a result of this decision.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday that the Centre was reducing the excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per litre and diesel by Rs 6 per litre. "This will reduce the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of Diesel by Rs 7 per litre," she tweeted.

Sitharaman had appealed to the states to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, to provide more relief to the masses.

Many non-BJP states have refused to reduce VAT.

The Kerala government had reduced the state tax on Saturday.

On Saturday, Thackeray said the Central government had increased the excise duty on petrol by Rs 18.42 per liter and announced a cut of only Rs 8. "First increase the prices at large-scale and then slash them at nominal scale, and then do the pretentiousness of slashing prices. This is not right," Thackeray said.

He also called upon the citizens of India not to get trapped in government data.

"The people of the country would get relief in the true sense only if excise duty is slashed as much as it was six-seven years ago," Thackeray demanded.

With inputs from PTI