Petrol, diesel on agenda of GST council: Jaitley

Our Correspondent
Jaipur, November 27

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said to bring petrol and diesel under GST is on agenda in GST council.

He said the Centre's moves on GST and demonetisation were in public interest.

"The Central government is in its favour but needs a consensus of all states to include petrol and diesel in GST. Till then we are trying our best," he told a press conference at the release of BJP manifesto here.

"GST council does not want to thrust this decision on all states by taking a consent of a few states but would prefer a general consensus. It is a federal setup and such a move may affect revenue aspects of any states, if decided unilaterally," Jaitley replied to a question. 

The GST council had held 31 meetings so far and every decision was unanimously taken by the member states, he claimed. 

The states are getting their share of 50 per cent from GST directly and about 21 per cent from devolution of funds under various Central schemes, Jaitley said.

When reminded that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has renamed GST as "Gabbar Singh Tax" and termed note ban as corruption, Jaitley said, "During the UPA government's 10 years, total taxes, including VAT, CST and cascading effect, were 31 per cent. Now, on 334 commodities the GST tax range is 12 to 18 per cent. UPA had the Gabbar Tax, not the Modi government. Even the Income Tax payers figures have risen from 3.8 cr to 6.84 cr in last four years, and by next year it would be 7.6 cr. The Congress leader is doing sheer naadani." 

When asked Rahul Gandhi announcement on waiving farmers' loan in 10 days, the FM said, "The Congress knows it would not come in power in the state, hence it made the announcement. The Congress made similar promise in Karnataka and Punjab, but in the latter state the government was 'kangaal' (bankrupt). Punjab government did for make-belief and there was only Rs 25000 cr left in the development expenditure fund."

"It is the Congress that is playing a politics of casteism by not declaring CM face in Rajasthan, and playing cards of six castes by projecting six leaders to keep voters confused. However, BJP has declared its CM face and does not want to fool people," he replied to another question. 

"To run a country the leader should have vision not on hollow slogans that the Congress is doing," he alleged. 

"Today we unveil the manifesto for Rajasthan which is a road map of the state. It shows the direction in which the BJP wants to take Rajasthan towards," Jaitley said, adding the state has emerged from six states to developing state.