GUWAHATI: Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Thursday announced a total cut of Rs. 5, on petrol and diesel in Assam thereby bringing down the price for petrol to Rs. 81.50 a litre and that of diesel to Rs. 73.91 a litre.
The new prices became applicable from Thursday midnight.
This announcement came in after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, announced marginal relief for citizens from runaway fuel prices with excise duty cut of Rs. 1.50 and another Re. 1 drop by oil marketing companies, taking the cut in fuel prices to Rs. 2.50.
Jaitley appealed to the states to match the Centre's effort by reducing value-added tax or VAT by Rs. 2.50 so that the total benefit to citizens is at least Rs. 5.
Interestingly, among the NE states, Assam levies the highest VAT- 30.90 pct on petrol and 22.79 pct on diesel. When compared to the neighboring states, Arunachal Pradesh levies 20 pct VAT on petrol and 12.50 pct on diesel and Tripura collects VAT at the rate of 23.15 pct on petrol and 16.18 pct on diesel.
Himanta Biswa Sarma said that although there was a windfall of additional revenue because of the rise in petroleum price but it was significantly less, and with the reduction of VAT in petrol and diesel, there will be a total revenue loss of Rs 400 crore for Assam.