Shillong, Aug 24: The state Cabinet on Wednesday approved the new rates of tax on petrol and diesel. Informing this after the meeting, Taxation Minister James K Sangma said, “Today, the present rate of tax for petrol is 13.5% or Rs 11 per litre whichever is higher. So this has been revised to 13.5% or Rs 12.50 per litre whichever is higher.”

“For diesel, the present rate of tax is 5% or Rs 4 per litre whichever is higher. This has been revised to 5% or Rs 5.50 per litre whichever is higher,” he added.

The present rate of tax for Petrol is 13.5% or ₹11 per liter whichever is higher which has been revised to 13.5% or ₹12.50 whichever is higher. For diesel, the present rate is 5% or ₹4 per litre whichever is higher and is revised to 5% or ₹5.50 per litre whichever is higher.

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) August 24, 2022

Stating that the rate of retail sale price (RSP) in Byrnihat right now is Rs 95.10, the minister said there will be a difference of Rs 1.92 between Assam and Meghalaya.

“For petrol, the new RSP is now going to be 95.10 in Byrnihat and 96.83 in Shillong and for diesel it is going to be Rs 83.50 in Byrnihat and Rs 84.72 in Shillong and the difference basically would be in Byrnihat Rs 1.44 for diesel and Rs 0.22 in Shillong,” he said.

Sangma further maintained that “despite the hike in our tax structure and the consequent increase in the prices of petrol and diesel we are still as a state, in terms of prices of petrol and diesel, are the cheapest in the entire country.”

The decision was also taken after the Assam government had recently revised its rates of tax on petrol and diesel.

As is the practice which has been followed in the state of Meghalaya for a very long time whenever the rates of Assam are changed, to commensurate to that, the government of Meghalaya also revises its rates of petrol and diesel to take advantage of the price differential, the minister stated.