Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today made it clear that State Govt has no mood to slash the VAT on petrol to offset the impact of steep rise of Rs 7.50 per litre in the price of petrol.
Interacting with media persons, Dhumal said, any decision in this regard would be taken after the Congress ruled states like Maharashtra, where tax on petrol and diesel was exorbitantly high, cut VAT on petroleum products.
In Himachal, the VAT was already very low and the government had reduced VAT on petrol from 27 to 20 per cent and on diesel from 20 per cent to 14 per cent and further reduced it to 9.70 per cent, Dhumal said. Chief Minister advices UPA Govt The UPA to first advise the Congress and its allies led states to take such a step and cut VAT on petrol.
Dhumal also added that center behavior is strange that the Centre which has the biggest kitty of funds collected through direct and indirect taxes was asking the states passing through financial crunch to take the lead and was itself not coming forward to give succour to the people.
