Thiruvananthapuram: State finance minister K N Balagopal has said the government was not in favour of including petroleum productions under GST regime.
“Those who demand the inclusion of petroleum products under the GST cover would only be endorsing the same at the expense of the autonomy of the state government,” he said.
“Public awareness should be created against this by exposing the dangers lurking under such demands.
We have already said a firm no to the demand.
We would continue to stick to our stand,” the minister told reporters at a meet the press programme here on Tuesday.
The minister reiterated the government’s stand that only 30% of the proceedings from the petroleum tax goes to the state government and there was no merit in the arguments that the petroleum price would come down if petroleum products are brought under GST.
“With the abolition of the old form of fuel pool account, the Union government is the sole beneficiary of the additional tax revenue coming out of the price difference of petroleum products in the national and international market.
If the petroleum products too come under GST, the state’s tax revenue would further plummet and the impact of the same would be almost impossible to manage,” he said.
Balagopal said the state government wanted the Union government to extend the GST compensation to states for another five years.
According to the minister, the dire condition of the state economy was of serious concern and the government would soon start pursuing options to improve the tax collection.
“Government is not asking traders and business men to pay extra tax.
We only appeal to them to pay to the government the tax they collect from consumers.
There is a need to generate a new consciousness on the need to stop tax evasion.
We are finalizing some plans for effective tax collection,” Balagopal said.
The minister said the tax proceedings from several business sectors, including gold sales, did indicate significant tax evasion.
“Even a section of gold jewellers themselves are of the opinion that the government should take certain steps to ensure a fair tax compliance,” he said.
The minister said the government was not willing to roll back or curtail the benefits to government employees or compromise in providing social security pensions even if it cannot pull on for long without controlling its expenses.