Government positive on bringing petroleum under GST said Arun Jaitley
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday supported the idea of bringing petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG (cooking gas) under the new Goods and Services Tax regime. Former finance minister P Chidambaram said, "Now that BJP is in power in 19 states and at the Centre what prevents them from bringing petroleum products under GST? When will the GST Council take up this subject?" "As far as the Central government is concerned, we are in favour of bringing petroleum products under the GST, let me categorically put it. But we will wait for the consensus of the states. And I do hope that at some stage sooner than later the states would agree to it," Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha. "Electricity, real estate, stamp duty and petroleum products should become part of GST (Goods and Services Tax). This would be our (GST Council) endeavour," said Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Modi at the annual meet of industry chamber Ficci. Jaitley said that the draft proposal for the GST-related Constitutional amendment presented by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had not included petroleum products to be part of the GST "because the UPA knew it would be a deal breaker with the states". "After a great deal of discussion, we persuaded the states to bring petroleum products under GST. Initially, the states were not agreeing but later they reluctantly agreed to it. In meeting after meeting of the Empowered Committee, we persuaded them. And finally the deal with the states was that the GST Council will move ahead for bringing petroleum products under GST only after the states would agree to it," Jaitley said. -PTC News
