BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has reiterated its demand for reduction of VAT on diesel and petrol to give relief to the common people. Several states have taken such a decision to lessen the burden on common people, OPCC spokesman Ashok Samal said and added that the State Government has responsibility to check the prices of essential commodities. Samal said that while the State Government gets ` 106 crore on VAT from the increased prices of petrol and diesel, it has waived VAT on LPG and kerosene which will burden the exchequer by ` 40 crore. He said that the Centre gives subsidy of ` 6.13 per litre of diesel, ` 353.72 per LPG cylinder and ` 24.98 per litre of kerosene. The Congress has threatened statewide agitation if the state government did not reduce VAT on diesel. However, the state government has rejected the Centre’s advice to lower VAT on diesel. The state will not be able to take such a burden, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said while announcing the waiver of VAT on LPG and kerosene. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has also launched a statewide agitation demanding withdrawal of the hiked prices on diesel, LPG and kerosene. Demonstration will be held in front of all the district collectorates and memoranda will be submitted demanding rollback of the enhanced prices. Centre had enhanced LPG prices by ` 50 per cylinder and diesel price by ` 3 per litre. The price of kerosene was also hiked by ` 2 per litre. The waiver of VAT by the State Government will give a relief of ` 16 per LPG cylinder and 58 paise per litre of kerosene.
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