Petrol may come under GST, hints Nirmala Sitaraman

Vijayawada: Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Saturday hinted that petroleum products and liquor could be brought under the GST structure in the future by saying that such a move has been kept on hold thus far on the requests of the states. Addressing managements of commercial establishments here, Ms Sitaraman said that GST implementation was a perfect example of cooperative federalism.

She reminded that the GST slabs were fixed in consultation with all the state governments after several rounds of meetings of the GST Council of which finance ministers of all the 29 states and seven Union Territories are members. “GST Council is a Constitutionally-empowered body and it met as many as 17 times to discuss the rates. GST is a revenue neutral model with an aim that it should not be a loss either to Centre or states. Rates have been fixed only after all states agreed on them unanimously. We ministers have been attending interactive meetings on GST in various towns and cities to explain the new tax structure and clarify issues and doubts raised by traders, entrepreneurs and exporters. A similar exercise has been done before July 1 before GST rollout,” said Ms Sitaraman.

Stating that GST was implemented to avoid double taxation and cascading effect on the consumers, she said that handloom industries having an annual turnover of Rs 20 lakh need not pay any GST. Ms Sitaraman pointed that earlier, only consumers bore the tax burden but with the introduction of GST, it was being shared by traders and manufacturers. She hoped that exports will get a boost with the introduction of GST as it enables free movement of trucks toll booths have been removed across the country. To a query, she said some of the states will gradually remove the toll booths as they have already agreed to do so.