Dharmendra Pradhan urges Odisha to cut taxes amid rising fuel prices

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday urged the Odisha government to cut taxes on fuel in order to bring down prices of petroleum products in the state.

"Several states have reduced taxes on fuel and Odisha government needs to follow their footsteps by slashing taxes on petro products in order to provide relief to the people," Pradhan told reporters here.

The cooperation of the state government is required to bring fuel prices under control, he said.

Stating that states get benefited whenever crude oil prices rise in the international market, Pradhan said the Odisha government, which was collecting around Rs 3,000 crore tax from fuel in 2014, now gets Rs 7,000 crore.

Reacting to the Union minister's comments, BJD spokesman Pratap Deb sought to know what happened to the "huge taxes" collected by the central government from fuel during the last four-and-a-half years.

He said the Centre, which was earlier charging 6 percent excise duty on petrol, is now levying 19 percent, while the excise duty on diesel has increased to 15 percent.