Comments
The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has turned down demand for shifting the basis of indirect tax levy on petroleum products to specific duty structure from the current ad-valorem system. A specific duty structure was suggested to him to help avoid cascading effects of price rise on consumers.
“I think it (shifting to specific duty structure) will not be prudent”, Mr Mukherjee said, adding that “we have to find out other mechanisms if possible” to cushion the impact of price rise. He was replying to the debate on Finance Bill 2011 in Rajya Sabha.
The Finance Minister noted that prices (of petroleum products) are increasing and therefore consumers are feeling the pinch. “But for that you want to disturb a system, an institutionalised mechanism, which will be beneficial for the long term”, he said.
Mr Mukherjee also assured that Government would continue to compensate state-owned oil marketing companies in cash for the revenue loss incurred on sale of petroleum products at subsidised rates.
The Rajya Sabha later returned the Finance Bill 2011 and the related appropriation Bills, signalling the end of the completion of the three stage budgetary exercise for 2011-12.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.