Amid pressure from striking transporters, Meghalaya govt slashes fuel prices

“I am sure this will make the consumers of the state happy and even the commercial vehicles will also benefit," CM Sangma said.

Faced with criticism from citizens and pressure from a two-week-long agitation by commercial vehicles, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government reduced the prices of petrol and diesel by a little over ₹7 on Tuesday.

Although the state government had earlier reduced the tax by ₹2, the opposition continued. (Representative image)

Highly placed sources in the state secretariat said the public criticism, the 2-week-long stay off the road by commercial vehicles, a 2-day road blockade (with minimal impact) and a possible hunger strike outside the secretariat had a major role in the government rescinding its earlier decision to hike tax on petrol and diesel and instead reduce it.

Although the government had earlier reduced the tax by ₹2, the opposition continued.

Announcing this decision after a meeting on Tuesday, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said, “The government of Meghalaya has decided to reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) for petrol and diesel by approximately ₹7.”

He said that the move is primarily to ensure that the consumers are not affected by the high prices and to give some relief to them. Sangma said, “I am sure this will make the consumers of the state happy and even the commercial vehicles will also benefit from the reduction in the prices of petrol and diesel.”

Presently, the price of petrol is ₹91.26 per litre while diesel is at ₹84.23 per litre compared to neighbouring Assam which stands at ₹86.25 for petrol and ₹80.41 for diesel per litre.

“The price of petrol in Meghalaya would reduce from ₹91.26 to ₹85.86, a reduction of approximately ₹6 and if you were to include the earlier ₹2 that we have already reduced, it will come up to almost ₹7.4 per litre,” Sangma elaborated.

“The cost of diesel would now be down to ₹79.13 from ₹84.23, a reduction of approximately ₹5 in diesel. Also, if you were to include ₹2 that was done initially, that would be approximately ₹7,” he added.

Ri-Bhoi district which borders Assam has it a little cheaper when compared to Shillong. From ₹89.81, petrol is now at ₹84.76 while diesel will now cost ₹78.21 from the previous rate of ₹83.10.

With this reduction, the price of petrol and diesel in Meghalaya is now amongst the lowest in the country, confirmed M Aggarwal, owner of a chain of petrol pumps in the state.

On the other hand, Sangma also said that the state has always maintained competitive pricing with Assam to ensure that the sales are not affected.

“We are hopeful that with this, our sales also will go up and will be able to make up for some of the losses in the taxes that we may have incurred due to the reduction in the prices of both petrol and diesel,” he said.

According to him, the VAT collected from petrol and diesel has helped the state which has faced lots of challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said the revenue loss due to the reduction in the VAT collection from petrol and diesel will be approximately ₹20 crore every month.

“I would also like to inform you that the revenue compared to last year, which was ₹326 crore, has increased. This year in January we touched ₹451 crore. Even though the revenue will come down, we expect that the overall revenue from VAT in the petrol and diesel will go up from ₹326 crore last year to at least ₹470 crore this year, so it is a jump of ₹140 crore but it would have been more if the prices had not come down,” he stated.

Sangma ruled out any possibility of increasing passenger fares. “We had revised the passenger fares in 2020 and the revised fares will be applicable,” he emphasised.