Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8

A day after the state government claimed it had reduced the fuel prices, making these cheapest in North India, the reality hit home after the oil marketing firms calculated and announced the new rates.

Petrol and diesel prices in Punjab are not just higher than most neighbouring states, but the retail fuel prices and the reduction in prices too are much lower than what the government claimed. it has said petrol would now sell in Punjab at Rs 95 per litre, and diesel at Rs 83.75 a litre.

However, across most cities, the petrol price varied between Rs 96.09 and Rs 97.09 a litre, while diesel prices hovered between Rs 84.53 and Rs 85.56 per litre. “After slashing the VAT yesterday, the effective cut in petrol prices is Rs 8.82 per litre, not Rs 10 per litre. Similarly, the reduction in diesel price is Rs 4.19 per litre, not Rs 5 per litre,” Monty Sehgal, spokesperson, Punjab Petroleum Dealers’ Association told The Tribune, after the new rates were notified by the oil marketing companies to retail fuel outlets.

When brought to the notice of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and the Excise and Taxation Department, they said this anomaly had arisen because of a miscommunication between the government and the oil marketing companies. The government issued another notification saying, “Additional tax @ 10% as specified in Section 8-B of the Punjab VAT Act, 2005, shall be in ad valorem rates only. Fixed rates specified above are already inclusive of additional tax @ 10%.”

“This will ensure that the cut in prices is Rs 10 per litre for petrol and Rs 5 per litre for diesel,” they told The Tribune. It was clarified vide a fresh notification that the fixed charge was inclusive of surcharge and the correction in rates would reflect by Tuesday morning.