Tamil Nadu CM Stalin lashes out at Prime Minister

On the matter of tax reduction on petroleum goods, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Thursday that people were aware of the facts underlying the issue and that his administration had previously slashed petrol prices by Rs 3 per litre. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin compared the statements to trying to hide a pumpkin with a handful of grains.

Stalin and Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan ripped into the Union Government, condemning it of “devouring” Rs 26 lakh crore rupees in the past eight years from fuel prices. Before comparing to the tariffs in place when the BJP won office in 2014, Rajan said the Centre presently levies an additional tax of Rs 18.42 per litre for petrol that is indeed a rise of around 200 percent, and Rs 18.23 per litre for diesel that is a further growth of over 500 percent.

Rajan said that the DMK had continuously reduced fuel taxes and had never raised them – three times under M Karunanidhi in 2006-2011 and once after the party took power in May 2021 to meet growing costs.

He added that on the contrary, we decreased taxes on our own prior to the Union Government’s decision. States cannot lower their portion of taxes because it is neither fair nor possible. For the past eight years, the Centre has been increasing cesses and surcharges.

Whenever taxes were increased, it was always under the AIADMK’s watch. However, it is less than the Union’s tax hike. Rajan further reminded the BJP that, although the November drop, fuel taxes in BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are on level with or significantly lower than in Tamil Nadu.

Rajan noted that is the responsibility of the Centre to lower taxes adding that the Union Government should eliminate cesses and surcharges and return to the 2014 rates.

Rajan found the Prime Minister’s statement that states not cutting taxes in lockstep with the Union Government’s decision violated the concept of cooperative federalism incomprehensible.

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