Meghalaya further lowers petrol, diesel retail prices by over Rs 5 per litre

Meghalaya government on Tuesdayslashed retail prices of petrol and diesel by another over Rs5 by reducing VAT on them, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangmasaid.

The decision came amid strike by commercial transportersthat entered second day Tuesday.

The new retail price of petrol will be Rs 85.86 from itscurrent price of Rs 91.26, while the new retail price ofdiesel will be Rs 79.13 from its present rate of Rs 86.23 inthe state capital, Sangma said after a review meeting he heldwith his cabinet colleagues and senior government officials.

He said the total reduction will be Rs 7.4 for petrol andRs 7.1 for diesel after the state government had announced aRs 2 rebate on both the items last week.

The lowering of prices of both petrol and diesel was aresult of the state governments decision to reduce the VATfrom 31.62 per cent on petrol to 20 per cent per litre or Rs15 per litre (whichever is higher).

For diesel VAT came down from 22.95 per cent to 12 percent or Rs 9 per litre, Conrad said.

The chief minister said the new tariff will also ensure acompetitive pricing of both the items with the neighbouringAssam which had reduced the prices of both petrol and dieselby Rs 5 last week.

The decision is likely to pacify agitating commercialtransporters who had remained off the road in the past twodays and also threatened to go on indefinite hunger strike ifthe government fails to act.

The state government had collected Rs 326 crore as revenuefrom taxes on petrol and diesel in the last financial year.

Conrad said the government had already collected Rs 451crore by way of taxes on petrol and diesel till January thisyear.

Meanwhile, the state government has also assured paymentof electricity dues to Power Grid Corporation of India Ltdworth over Rs 74 crore following which the power company hasassured to withdraw power regulations to the state withimmediate effect.

The power regulation of 70 MW resulting in power cutsof up to 7 hours in a day across the state had begun sinceSunday last after the state government failed to pay pendingdues of Rs 74.65 crore to the PGCIL.

''I am happy to inform that load shedding (power cuts)will be completely taken out within 24 hours. We have theapprovals of the PGDCIL,'' Conrad told journalists here.

He said the state government had cleared a Rs 1345 crAatmanirbhar loan from the Centre to liquidate all outstandingdues against the purchase of power from various power-generating institutions.

According to the chief minister, the centre has alreadyreleased Rs 127 crore to the REC which was paid to anotherpower generating company, NEEPCO.

''About 75 per cent of the amount is left with the REC.

Funds are released from the REC and in due course of time, thedues for PGCIL will also be paid by the REC,'' Conrad said.

The chief minister informed that the Meghalaya ElectricCoportation Ltd has been a victim of non payment of dues byconsumers.

The company had in the past two months recovered nearlyone crore dues after the company issued reminders and noticesto defaulting consumers.

The chief minister appealed to all consumers of MeECL topay their dues regularly.

Officials of the state power company have been asked tofollow strict procedures to recover dues from consumers, asenior official of the company said.