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Parties urge Puducherry government to curb smuggling of petrol, diesel

PUDUCHERRY: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Friday urged the government to take effective steps to prevent “smuggling of huge quantities” of petrol and diesel from Puducherry to Tamil Nadu.

Raising the issue in the Zero Hour, leader of the AIADMK A.Anbalagan said Puducherry had become the hub of smuggling of petrol and diesel.

The consignments of fuel brought to Puducherry had been sold en route as the cost of petrol and diesel was lesser than the cost that prevailed in Tamil Nadu in view of 8 per cent difference in Sales Tax. The ST was 12 per cent in the UT while it stood at 20 per cent in Tamil Nadu, he pointed out.

The illegal transportation of the fuel consignments had become a routine affair, he said, adding that the ST concessions should benefit the locals and not the smugglers.

He also referred to the seizure of a tanker along with 4,000 litres of petrol and same quantity of of diesel on Thursday.

N.Kalainathan (CPI) said though the smuggling activities had become rampant during the last five or six years.

Alleging that the personnel engaged in collecting Sales Tax had been threatened by the dealers, Mr.Kalainathan pleaded for rewarding the honest personnel in the department and also the personnel in the Excise Department who had been taking action against the smugglers and tax evaders risking their lives.

Speaker R.Radhakrishnan acknowledged it as a welcome suggestion.

N.Anandu (Puducherry Munnetra Congress) asked the government to strengthen security in the newly created truck terminal at Mettupalayam so that heavy vehicles could be safely parked there. The move would also reduce traffic congestion in the town, he said.

N.G.Pannirselvam (Pattali Makkal Katchi) urged the government to fix 1100 as maximum marks for the class X students of the Matriculation stream. This would allay apprehensions in the minds of the candidates on the system to be adopted to calculate the marks, he said.

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