Picture : Twitter / ANI
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has accused the Centre of “taunting” the Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories in the recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The Chief Ministers were told that PM Modi would hold a meeting on COVID-19 situation in the country. Instead, PM Modi taunted the Chief Ministers of non-BJP states regarding petrol and diesel prices. It’s not right. PM Modi was not expected to do so but CMs Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee have given the answer,” Raut said to reporters .
This comes a day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray slammed the Centre by saying that the state government cannot be held responsible for the spike in fuel prices.
Reacting PM Modi remarks, Maharashtra Deputy CM and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar said, A huge GST amount is yet to come from the Centre. PM appealed to reduce tax on petrol diesel yesterday, we did not increase any tax in the budget this year. We reduced tax on CNG due to which the state suffered a loss of Rs 1000 crores,
Pawar further told ANI, We can discuss petrol-diesel prices in cabinet today. CM will tell us what happened in meeting with the PM yesterday. Everyone in the country has to accept that import oil is taxed first by Centre & then states, so the Center should also reduce tax.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a COVID-19 review meeting with Chief Ministers of all States and Union Territories. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel were amongst those present in the meeting.
In the meeting, Prime Minister Modi appealed to the States ruled by non-BJP parties to reduce tax on fuel. He said prices of fuel were higher in many opposition-ruled states and urged them to reduce Value Added Tax in “national interest” and as a part of “cooperative federalism” to benefit the common man.
