Pradhan has suggested that petroleum products should be brought under GST for uniform tax mechanism across India. The state finance ministers agreed that petroleum products and liquor – which contribute up to half of the states’ revenue -- should be kept outside the GST regime. The Centre had accepted the argument that bringing them under GST would result in huge revenue loss to the states. “The GST council took a conscious decision to keep petroleum products outside the GST ambit”. The Central government had expressed its inability to compensate such a huge amount during meetings of the empowered committee of the finance ministers on GST.

Source: Hindustan Times September 21, 2017 09:47 UTC