Following the Centre’s reduction of excise duty on petrol and diesel, the BJP and the Congress on Friday demanded that the Delhi Government roll back VAT on fuel for the sake of the common man.
The Delhi Assembly’s Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri warned the Delhi Government of a sit-in by BJP MLAs outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house starting Monday if the VAT was not reduced by ₹10 till Sunday. After the Centre had cut ₹5 per litre on petrol and ₹10 per litre on diesel, 13 States and Union Territories reduced VAT, but the Delhi Government was still silent, he said.
“Now it is the turn of the state governments to give relief to the public by reducing VAT. The highest VAT is levied on petrol and diesel in Delhi. It is now the moral responsibility of the Delhi government to reduce VAT,” the LOP added.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ch. Anil Kumar said it was “shocking” that the Delhi government, which had “robbed the people of over ₹25,000 crore on VAT” in the past seven years, had refused to commensurately reduce it despite many states having done so.
He demanded the Delhi Government immediately roll back the VAT and bring it to the level present when the Congress was in power here, so that people who had been “mercilessly exploited by the Modi and Arvind Governments in the past seven years” got relief.
