Chennai : A day after the Centre reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 and Rs 6 per litre respectively, Taminadu Minister for Finance and Human Resource Management Dr.Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Sunday said it is neither fair nor reasonable to expect States to reduce their taxes. In a statement here, he said though the Union Government has reduced the taxes, it is still higher than the 2014 rates by Rs.10.42 per litre for petrol and Rs.12.23 per litre for diesel.
Therefore, there is a strong case for the Union Government to further reduce its taxes”, he said. It is pertinent to point out that the Union had never consulted the States when they increased the taxes on petrol and diesel multiple times. The exorbitant increase in taxes by the Union Government has been only partially reduced through their cuts and the taxes continue to be high as compared to the 2014 rates”, he said. Therefore, it is neither fair nor reasonable to expect States to reduce their taxes”, the Finance Minister said.
He said though this Government inherited a precarious fiscal position from the previous Government and incurred additional expenditure towards Covid reliefc activities, it reduced the taxes on petrol in a few months after assuming office, for the welfare of the people. Tamilnadu, despite its limited taxation powers, has taken proactive measures to reduce the tax burden on the people of the State, he said. Referring to the reduction in excise duty announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said it is heartening to note that the Union Government has finally heeded to the repeated requests of the Tamil Nadu Government to reduce the taxes on petrol and diesel, which were egregiously increased by the Union Government from
2014 to 2021.