The central government can make a big decision before the assembly elections to be held in 5 states of the country next year. According to sources, the government has started considering bringing petrol-diesel, natural gas, and aviation turbine fuel (aircraft fuel) under the ambit of GST under the 'One Country-One Price' scheme. This is likely to be discussed in the GST Council meeting in Lucknow on September 17. This will be the first meeting of the GST Council since the Corona epidemic.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair this 45th meeting of the GST Council. During this, the Group of Ministers can discuss the proposal of 'One Country, One Price'. The meeting is likely to discuss bringing one or more petroleum products under the purview of GST.
If the GST Council approves the proposal of the Group of Ministers, then the prices of petrol and diesel will become equal in all the states of the country. Not only this, due to uniform GST, the prices of petrol and diesel will come down drastically. However, the GST Council does not agree with this proposal. Sources claim that in view of the revenue, the higher officials of the GST Council are not ready to impose uniform GST on petroleum products.
In the financial year 2019-20, the state and central government had received revenue of 5.55 lakh crore from petroleum products. In this, the governments got the maximum revenue from petrol and diesel. The central government is charging 32 percent tax on petrol and the state government around 23.07 percent. At the same time, 35 more state governments at the Center are levying more than 14 percent tax on diesel.
In the meeting, tax exemption can also be given on equipment and medicines related to the treatment of corona. At the same time, Aadhaar can be made mandatory for more than 80 lakh firms. Not only this, the GST Council will consider the report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to allow a special cess on pharma and electricity in Sikkim.
According to sources, Sikkim is in favor of allowing GoM to levy a cess of 1% on inter-state supply of pharma goods and Rs 0.1 per unit on consumption or sale of electricity for three years. However, it is a state matter which is outside the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GoM has urged the Center to consider a special package of Rs 300 crore per year as assistance to Sikkim by 2023 to help it recover losses due to COVID-19.
