Re: Petroleum Pricing in India ? Debate Quote:
Originally Posted by ukderebail Similarly one uniform life time tax across India is essential, if at all refunds has to be carried out let it be one inter-state level ( credit and debit their account ) Max. migration or change of address fees of Rs 200 to 500 should be charged depending on category of vehicle. |
Project aadhar would help in getting this done. however this is still in implementation stage. which mind you still requires a substantial influx of funds. Quote:
Originally Posted by samm I think this should be the way to go. Why special treatment for petrol and alcohol?
For eg, if you are asked to pay differential rates of Income tax, what would be the situation? ( in US I guess there is differential IT) As of now, a fixed percent goes to the state govt, and remaining to central govt. For petroleum and alcohol, cant a similar approach be followed? Anyways local govts doesnt do anything much in terms of road or infrastructure (reasons given for exhorbitant taxes). Whatever is done is coming under Toll collection or some other fees. |
in my opinion alcohol(for obvious reasons) and petrol is still considered as a luxuary item. Now before you all stand up and shout please hear me out. The main use of fuel AKA Petrol is in private vehicles where the reason given is that the purchasing power of the individuals is big enough to absorb the inflation. For people who do not have the same purchasing power, the government installs public transport system as an efficient and effective alternative.
I would like to speak about Himachal Pradesh as i am most aware about my state. Petrol is at about 66-odd Rs. right now. I live in a small hilly state where the two main sources of income for the state government is Tourism and Hydro-Power. Now there is a state entry tax ranging from Rs.20(three wheelers)-Rs30(four wheelers)-approx 500(heavy trucks) on state borders. an additional Green tax is charged by the town of Manali for Vehicles with non-HP registered vehicles. These are the only two taxes(that i know of) taken by the government (apart for the taxes from hotels etc.) from Tourism.
Revenue from Hydro power is very miniscule as we have a very small share since we did not have the funds to construct the dams in the first place. so the dams were constructed in partnership with neighboring states and/or centre or under loan from world bank/IMF. These are the two major sources of income for the state.
Now anyone who has come here or lives here can refute this but it is very expensive to conduct infrastructure projects in a hilly terrain. it needs more manpower/machinery (eventually money) to make and manage roads year on year. several Kms of roads get completely washed off every year and have to made from scratch. Not to mention the battering the roads suffer every year from monsoons/winters. And this is just the roads. In addition we have transport, schooling, healthcare, food/water and sanitation/waste disposal projects running year round.
Now anyone with a basic knowledge of economics would wonder how the state will repay all the loans and debts incurred for these projects. The biggest and continuous source of income(liquid capital) for any state day-on-day, month-on-month, year-on-year is through taxes on petroleum products. i agree a part of it goes to repaying the oil co.s for the imbalances in their balance sheets. but a big part of it goes into the welfare of the people of the state. We cannot deny this, there may be leakages in the system but that has more to do with the administrators than the government policy.
I agree Tolls are charged on many roads these days but in my experience it is restricted to national higways in most cases. the burden to maintain the state roads falls on the state government and who better to charge for this than the ones who buy and run vehicles on these roads. The bigger concern is the parity between petrol and diesel and it is negatively impacting the buying and usage of vehicles in the country. Diesel is quickly becoming the fuel of choice rather than an essential fuel to transport goods & services for the welfare of the common man. and by common i mean the guy who can barely make ends meet earning a few thousand a month rather than the one who can spend lakhs on a vehicle but cribs about taxes on the vehicle and the fuel. |