Petrol, diesel costliest in state in NE
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 24 2022:
With the reduction of central excise tax by the Government of India, petrol and diesel prices have come down below Rs 100 per litre in other states of the North East but one litre of petrol still costs Rs 101.22 in Manipur, the highest in the region.
Prices of petroleum products in the state would reduce and accordingly increase sales if Manipur government reduces Value Added Tax (VAT).
In doing so, Manipur government could collect more revenue than the same collected from VAT, a prominent member of Petroleum Dealers' Association has said.
As per information received from IOC, one litre of petrol is being sold at Rs 101.22 per litre and diesel Rs 87.17 per litre in Manipur.
The cost of one litre of petrol in Manipur is highest in the North East region at present.
After reduction of central excise, one litre of petrol is now sold at Rs 96.37 in Assam, Rs 94.21 in Meghalaya, Rs 95.79 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 95.72 in Mizoram, Rs 98.39 in Nagaland and Rs 98.98 in Tripura.
Among the states of the region, diesel price is cheapest in Mizoram at Rs 82.18 followed by Meghalaya Rs 83.13, Assam Rs 84.27, Arunachal Pradesh Rs 84.72, Nagaland Rs 86.75 and Tripura at Rs 87.96 .
However, one litre of diesel is being sold at Rs 87.17 per litre in Manipur.
When contacted, a member of petroleum dealers' association in the state explained that VAT collected by Manipur government from one litre of petrol is Rs 19.55 and Rs 10.92 from diesel.
Around 300KL of petrol are being sold in Manipur daily and government collects Rs 58,65,000 from selling this product daily.
In respect of diesel, on an average 500KL are being sold in the state daily and VAT collected by state government from this product is Rs 54,60,000 .
Accordingly, the state government collects around Rs 1.23 crore daily as VAT from selling these two petroleurn products.
When compared to the past few years, sale of petrol and diesel has significantly reduced in Manipur.
One key reason for this reduction might be hike in prices of petroleum products in the country but it is due to high prices of petrol and diesel that sales have declined in the state, the petroleum dealer, who refused to be named, said and suggested VAT reduction to increase sales.
If VAT is reduced, trucks coming from outside will definitely refill in the state thereby increasing government's revenue, the dealer said.
Manipur government might think of collecting necessary profit without selling much petroleum products but reducing VAT will give new hope to poor people and this will also increase government's revenue collection by selling more fuel, the dealer observed.