• Thursday, March 28, 2024

Business

India decides against bringing petrol, diesel under GST

Motorists at a fuel station in India. (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIAN finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday (17) said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council spoke on the topic of inclusion of petrol and diesel under the tax structure after the recent order of the Kerala High Court.

“On the direction of court it was brought on to table but members spoke very clearly they do not want it to be included in GST,” she said.

“This will be reported to the high court as the GST Council felt it was not the time to bring petroleum products under the GST,” the finance minister added.

In June, the high court, based on a writ petition, had asked the council to take a call on bringing petrol and diesel within the gambit of GST.

The minister also said that the GST rate on bio-diesel for blending with diesel (used by oil marketing companies) has been slashed from 12 per cent to five per cent.

The Council also extended concessional GST rates on drugs used in Covid-19 treatment till December 31, Sitharaman said.

She said online food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy must pay GST instead of the restaurant from where they pick up orders. The council said there is no new tax.

“Suppose you order food from aggregator and restaurant is paying taxes. We found that some restaurants were not paying taxes. Now we are saying if you order via aggregator, the aggregator will collect tax from consumer and pay to the authorities instead of the restaurant doing this. There is no new tax,” revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said.

Related Stories

Loading