GST council meeting today: Kerala, Maharashtra to oppose move to bring petrol, diesel under GST

The 45th GST Council meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to be held on September 17. (File image: Reuters)

Kerala and Maharashtra governments will oppose any move to bring petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

The 45th GST Council meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to be held on September 17 and a proposal on taxing petrol and diesel under the single national GST is likely to be taken up.

"Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman will chair the 45th GST Council meeting at 11 AM in Lucknow tomorrow. The meeting will be attended by MOS Shri @mppchaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States," the Finance Ministry has tweeted.

A day ahead of the scheduled meeting, the Kerala government said that it will vehemently oppose any move to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime as that will further reduce revenue generation for the state and asserted that the Centre should reduce its levies on the two commodities to provide relief to the common people.

Central excise and state VAT (Value Added Tax) make up for almost half of the retail selling price of petrol and diesel. Bringing them under the GST would impact revenue generation for the states.

Talking to PTI, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal said the state will strongly oppose if there is any move to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime. He said the fuel prices skyrocketed due to the huge increase of its cess by the Centre and if the Union Government reduces the cess, which will help in bringing down the prices of petrol and diesel. If petrol and diesel are brought under the GST regime, Kerala will lose Rs 8,000 crore annually, said the minister.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar also opposed any such move. The Nationalist Congress Party leader said that the Centre is free to levy taxes but it should not touch areas that are under the state's jurisdiction, reported Hindustan Times.

"If there is any move to do so, the state government will put forth its view in tomorrow's GST Council meeting," Pawar, who is also the finance minister of the state, was quoted as saying.

In the meeting, the GST council may review tax rate of over four-dozen items and extend till December 31, tax concessions on 11 COVID-19 drugs. Besides bringing petrol and diesel under the single national GST tax, it may also take up a proposal to treat food delivery apps such as Zomato and Swiggy as restaurants and levy a 5 percent GST tax on supplies made by them.