Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced that fuel prices would be cut in the state, petrol by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 3.
Following the announcement, the petrol price in Mumbai will come down to Rs 106.35 per litre, as opposed to the Rs 111.35 per litre now.
Diesel price in Mumbai will be cut to Rs 94.28 per litre, from the present Rs 97.28 per litre.
In Pune, petrol price will be Rs 105.88 per litre, while diesel will be priced at Rs 92.37 for one litre.
In Thane, petrol will now cost Rs 106.49, while diesel will cost Rs 94.42 per litre.
The government announced the cuts in Value Added Tax (VAT) will cost the state Rs 6,000 crore a year, but help bring down overall inflation.
‘When the central government cut excise duty in May to reduce fuel prices, it asked states to cut taxes too. But the previous state government did not. We’ve now taken that step,’ CM Eknath Shinde said.
Experts are seeing this as a political decision, as much as a financial one, as Eknath Shinde formed a government with the, after rebelling against his erstwhile Shiv Sena party, displacing the Uddhav Thackera-led Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Soon after proving majority in the State Assembly, CM Shinde announced last week that VAT on fuel would be reduced and has followed through on that decision.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said the decision is ‘part of the Shiv Sena-BJP government’s commitment to people’s welfare.’
CM Shinde claims his faction of the Shiv Sena — which has majority of the MLAs with it — is the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, which is being hotly debated by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.
Union Finance Minister Sitharaman earlier commented on fuel prices saying ‘I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.’
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