Uttar Pradesh has slashed VAT on petrol,diesel, CM Yogi Adityanath tells UP Assembly

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday informed the house that the value added tax (VAT), imposed by the state government on diesel and petrol, has been further reduced by Rs 1.03 and Rs 1.40 per litre, respectively, after the Centre slashed the excise duty on the fuel three days ago.
Yogi's submission came on a query raised by SP MLA Virendra Yadav who sought to know if the UP government would take any step to reduce the state tax on fuel to bring further down their prices in the wake of rising inflation.
The CM said that the base price of petrol and diesel automatically got reduced on May 22 when the Centre slashed the excise duty on diesel and petrol by Rs 8 and Rs 6 per litre, respectively.
‘Govt has no further plan to reduce state tax on petrol, LPG’
The CM, however, maintained that his government had no further plan to reduce any state tax on petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
“LPG is covered under GST for which any approval to reduce tax will have to be granted by the GST Council,” he said.
Immediately after the Centre slashed the excise duty, three states – Kerala, Maharashtra and Rajasthan – had taken credit for reducing VAT on petrol and diesel to provide further “cushion” to consumers from high fuel prices.
The issue of reduction in state taxes has already taken political overtones in Andhra Pradesh where the opposition party, TDP, has sought to corner CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for not taking steps to bring down VAT. TDP MLC and party’s state general secretary Nara Lokesh had on May 23 dashed off a letter to Reddy pointing towards 31% VAT which was the highest in the country.
“Because of the highest fuel prices in the state, AP vehicles are now taking petrol and diesel from neighbouring states causing a revenue loss to the exchequer,” he said.