Chandigarh, April 6
While the prices of diesel and petrol have gone up marginally since April 1, the cess on liquor — both Punjab medium (PML) and Indian-made foreign (IMFL) — is yet to be levied in Punjab.
“No final decision has been taken on the levying of cess on Punjab medium liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor,” says a senior functionary of the Excise and Taxation Department, maintaining that “no additional cess or tax has been levied on petroleum products in the state.”
“We have no idea why petrol stations are charging more for diesel and petrol. It may be because of an increase in some central taxes or levies,” he added.
Although there has been no official announcement so far about the increase in the prices of diesel and petrol, petrol station owners have, in fact, started charging 45 paise a litre more on petrol and 4 paise a litre more on diesel from April 1.
Oil companies admit that the diesel and petrol prices have been hiked from April 1. The increase, they maintain, follows directions from the government. In all probability, the increase is because of the Central Budget proposals.
The Punjab Finance and Planning Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, had proposed to levy a cess of Re 1 per litre on diesel and 50 paise a litre on petrol to raise Rs 100 crore annually to finance the Agri-Diversification Fund. The proposal was, however, withdrawn following protests from not only within the ruling party but also by
the Opposition as well as various farmers’ organisations. Instead, the government decided to levy cess on every bottle of both PML and IMFL sold in the state. The Excise and Taxation Department, however, opposed the liquor cess on technical and legal grounds, maintaining that no such cess was proposed or mentioned in the excise policy on the basis of which all vends were auctioned.
