Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced important economic decisions on Saturday
Days after a war of words broke out between the central government and the states in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request to cut the value-added tax (VAT) on fuel prices, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in fuel prices on Saturday. excise duty on petrol and diesel at Rs 8 and Rs 6 per liter respectively.
The finance minister made the announcement via a series of tweets urging all state governments, especially those that had not cut excise taxes by November 4, 2021, to also implement a similar cut and relieve the common man.
7/12 We are reducing the Central excise tax on Petrol by 8 per liter and on Diesel by 6 per liter.
As a result, the price of petrol falls by 9.5 per liter and diesel by ₹ 7 per liter.It will have a revenue implication of about ₹1 lakh crore/year for the government.
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
The Finance Minister’s request for states to cut excise taxes comes just weeks after Modi’s similar urging non-BJP-ruled states to cut VAT on fuel prices, sparking a bitter confrontation between them and the Center. had led.
8/12
I want to urge all state governments, especially those that did not cut spending during the last round (November 2021), to also implement similar cuts and relieve the common man.— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
The non-Congress states retaliated against the prime minister’s request by claiming that rather it was the Union government that harassed the citizens by levying all kinds of taxes and duties.
Meanwhile, Ms Sitharaman also announced that the government will provide Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year to alleviate some of the burden resulting from cooking gas tariffs soaring to record levels.
9/12 Also, this year we will give a grant of ₹200 per gas cylinder (up to 12 cylinders) to more than 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of approximately ₹6100 crore per year. #Ujjwala
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
A 14.2kg LPG cylinder costs Rs 1,003 in the national capital. The beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the poor women who got free connections, will get Rs 200 grant directly into their bank accounts and the effective price for them would be Rs 803 per 14.2 kg cylinder.
These excise tax cuts along with a Rs 5 cut on petrol and Rs 10 cut on diesel that came into effect from November 4, 2021 will make the increase in taxes on petrol and diesel of Rs 13 per liter and Rs 16 per liter between March 2020 and May 2020 undone. to prevent the sharp fall in international oil prices from being passed on to consumers at that time.
The 2020 excise tax hikes had pushed central taxes on petrol to the highest level of Rs 32.9 per liter and those on diesel to Rs 31.8 per litre.
After the last cut in excise duty, the central tax on petrol will fall to 19.9 rupees per liter and that on diesel to 15.8 rupees per liter.
Ms. Sitharaman further announced that the government is recalibrating customs duties on iron and steel raw materials and intermediaries in order to lower their prices.
Import duties will be cut on some steel raw materials and export duties will be imposed on some steel products, she tweeted.
11/12 In the same way, we calibrate customs duties on raw materials and intermediaries for iron and steel to lower their prices.
Import duties on some steel raw materials are reduced.
Export duties are levied on some steel products.#MSME#iron#steel#Customs#Export
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
The Finance Minister further stated that steps are being taken to improve cement availability through improved logistics to reduce costs.
12. Measures are taken to ensure the availability of #Cement and through better logistics to reduce cement costs.
Notifications with specific details on all of the above will be sent by the Indonesian government within the next hour.
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
The finance minister went ahead with big ticket announcements and further informed that in addition to the fertilizer subsidy of Rs 1.05 lakh crore announced in the Union budget, an additional amount of Rs 1.10 lakh crore will be provided to further support the farmers.
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I want to urge all state governments, especially those that did not cut spending during the last round (November 2021), to also implement similar cuts and relieve the common man.— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 21, 2022
