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Three Congress States cut levies

NEW DELHI: A day after West Bengal and Kerala cut levies to cushion the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG, the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Assam on Thursday announced similar cuts. Other Congress governments are likely to announce some relief in the next 24 hours.

The move follows telephone calls from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the party Chief Ministers, asking them to reduce taxes and levies on petroleum products to ease the burden of the fuel hike.

Ms. Gandhi is understood to have told them to set an example by reducing taxes and levies on petroleum products.

The “advice” comes in the wake of criticism that the party had abandoned “aam aadmi.”

A similar request was made by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address to the nation on Wednesday while explaining the reasons for the hike.

The first to follow the “advice” was Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikhsit. By foregoing Valued Added Tax on LPG and providing additional subsidy, the LPG price will go up by only Rs. 10, instead of Rs. 50 in the Capital.

The Assam government decided to reduce the petrol and diesel prices by Re. 1.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy announced in Guntur that the State would absorb the entire hike in LPG price and it would be available at the old price.

In the case of Maharashtra, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had convened a Cabinet meeting to take a decision on the quantum of reduction in the tax structure on petroleum products.

The Haryana Chief Minister has called a Cabinet meeting on Friday and State officials maintained that a reduction was on the cards.

With Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Capital, there was no word from the State on this count.

The Bharatiya Janata Party too has directed its governments to lower taxes on petroleum products.

BJP president Rajnath Singh spoke to the party’s seven Chief Ministers and asked them to lower the taxes on petroleum products so as to provide some relief to the common man, party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

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