Amid fuel prices rising in country, Meghalaya slashes VAT to offer relief to consumers

Amid the outrage over the surge in fuel prices across the country, the Meghalaya government has decided to reduce the price of fuel in an attempt to offer relief to consumers of the state. In addition to the previous rebate of Rs 2 per litre, the state government has decided to reduce the price of petrol by Rs 5.4 per litre and diesel by Rs 5.1 per litre, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Tuesday.

"The government decided to reduce the overall VAT on both petrol and diesel. It will affect the revenue structure, but we felt the need to give some sort of relief to the consumers,” Conrad Sangma wrote on Twitter.

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Strike against fuel price rise by commercial transporters

The decision by the Meghalaya government has come amid a strike by commercial transporters that entered the second day. The commercial transporters had remained off the road in the past two days and also threatened to go on indefinite hunger strike if the government fails to act.

The new retail price of petrol will be Rs 85.86 from its current price of Rs 91.26, while the new retail price of diesel will be Rs 79.13 from its present rate of Rs 86.23 in the state capital, Sangma said after a review meeting he held with his cabinet colleagues and senior government officials. He said the total reduction will be Rs 7.4 for petrol and Rs 7.1 for diesel after the state government had announced a Rs 2 rebate on both the items last week.

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The lowering of prices of both petrol and diesel was a result of the state government's decision to reduce the VAT from 31.62% on petrol to 20% per litre or Rs 15 per litre (whichever is higher). For diesel VAT came down from 22.95% to 12% or Rs 9 per litre, Conrad said while adding that the competitive pricing of both the items with the neighbouring Assam which had reduced the prices of both petrol and diesel by Rs 5 last week.

The fuel prices have continued to rise across the country for the eighth consecutive day due to the price fluctuation in global markets and both crude and product prices seeing a big spike. Oil marketing companies raised the pump price of diesel by a high level of 35 paise per litre and petrol by another 30 paise per litre in Delhi. With this increase, petrol is now stood at Rs 89.29 a litre and diesel Rs 79.70 a litre in the capital.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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