It is not possible to bring petrol and diesel under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the next eight to ten years as it statues will annually lose more than Rs 2 lakh crore, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. And he said that no state is ready to bear this loss. In support of the Finance Bill, the former Bihar Finance Minister made his point. He challenged the opposition parties to keep talking about this in the GST Council. He said that the Chief Minister or Finance Minister of any non-NDA government has not opposed any decision of the GST Council.
Sushil Modi said that the central and state governments get more than Rs 5 lakh Crores revenue from petroleum products every year.
This statement of the BJP MP is very important because he has kept this point at a time when petrol prices have been skyrocketing for the last several months and even in many states the price has crossed Rs 100 per litre. After this, Congress and some other parties have demanded to bring petrol and diesel under the purview of GST.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that she would be happy to discuss the suggestion of bringing petrol and diesel within the ambit of GST in the next meeting of the GST Council.
Sushil Modi said that it is quite easy for opposition leaders to make a statement about this outside but no one raises this issue in the GST Council meeting.
He questioned, “The issue of bringing petrol and diesel under the purview of GST is being repeatedly raised. I have been associated with GST for a long time and want to know from the House who will compensate the loss of revenue of Rs 2 lakh crores to the states after taking petrol and diesel in GST. ”
Sushil Modi said, “I want to tell the House that it is not possible to keep petrol and diesel under GST for the next eight to ten years because no state government will want to lose revenue of Rs 2 lakh crores, whether it is Congress government or someone else…”
