Meghalaya govt reduces prices of petrol, diesel by Rs 7

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaFebruary 16, 2021

Under pressure, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government has reduced the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 7.

This came following the indefinite strike called by the commercial vehicles for the past 14 days as a mark of protest against the fuel price hike and decision of the government to reduce the rate by only Rs 2.

Announcing this decision on Tuesday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “The government of Meghalaya has decided to reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) for petrol and diesel by approximately Rs 7.”

He said this is being done primarily to ensure that the consumers are not affected by the high prices and in order to give some relief to them.

“I am sure this will make the consumers of the state happy and even the commercial vehicles will also benefit from the reduction in the prices of petrol and diesel,” Sangma said.

Currently, the price of petrol is Rs 91.26 per litre while diesel is Rs 84.23 per litre compared to neighbouring Assam at Rs 86.25 for petrol and Rs 80.41 for diesel.

After today’s decision, the chief minister said that for petrol which currently is at Rs 31.62 percent or Rs 17.60 per litre will now be reduced to 20 percent or Rs 15 per litre whichever is higher.

“This would mean that the price of petrol in Meghalaya would reduce from Rs 91.26 to Rs 85.86, a reduction of approximately Rs 6 and if you were to include the earlier Rs 2 that we have already reduced it will come up to almost Rs 7.4 per litre,” he said.

Similarly, the chief minister said that the VAT structure for diesel will also be reduced to 12 percent or Rs 9 per litre whichever is higher from the current rate at 22.95 percent or Rs 12 per litre.

“This would mean that the cost of diesel would now be down to Rs 79.13 from Rs 84.23, a reduction of approximately Rs 5 in diesel and also if you were to include Rs 2 that was done initially that would be approximately Rs 7,” he informed.