Centre criticised for reducing windfall tax on crude oil

The tax could have been used to benefit common man by lowering price of petro products, Minister for Industries claimed

Minister for Industries and Information Technology K. T. Rama Rao has criticised the Central government for reducing the windfall tax on crude oil without transferring the benefit to common man by way of lowering the petrol and diesel prices.

The Central government did not reduce fuel prices but brought down taxes paid by corporate companies. This clearly showed that the corporate companies were the top priority for Centre, Mr. Rama Rao said in a release.

Mr. Rama Rao said ₹35,000 crore was saved by importing crude oil from Russia at discounted price but only two or three companies benefited from it, he claimed. The corporate companies refined the crude oil brought from Russia and exported it to other countries.

He sought to know why the Centre issued permission to export crude oil brought from Russia and not used it within the country. Ordinary Indian citizens did not benefit from it. Who was pocketing profits of the companies? he asked.

Finding fault with Centre blaming States like Telangana for high petrol prices, he pointed out that the cess imposed by Centre was the reason for the hike. The Centre collected ₹30 lakh crore in the form of cess, but, Telangana did not hike Value Added Tax since 2014, he claimed.

If cess was scrapped, the price of petrol could be reduced to ₹70 a litre and diesel to ₹60 a litre, the Minister for Industries claimed.