Bengaluru:The Karnataka coalition government increased state tax on petrol and diesel by 2 per cent with effect from January 1, said an official statement on Saturday."As fuel prices declined after fall in crude oil rates in overseas market since November, state tax has been revised 2 per cent to 32 per cent on petrol and to 21 per cent on diesel since January 1, 2019," said a statement by chief minister's office here.The state government had on September 17 reduced its tax on petrol to 28.75 per cent from 32 per cent and diesel to 17.73 per cent from 21 per cent in a bid to give relief to people from on soaring international crude oil prices."The Union government also reduced on October 5 central excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.5 per litre and directed state-run oil marketing firms to cut petrol and diesel by Re 1 per litre for sparing public from higher cost," recalled statement.In state budget for this fiscal (2018-19), Chief Minister H.D Kumaraswamy, who also holds finance portfolio, increased state tax on petrol by 2 per cent to 32 per cent from 30 per cent and on diesel to 21 per cent from 19 per cent with effect from July 15 despite protests and public resentment.The increase in state tax, however, drew flak from opposition BJP, whose legislator Arvind Limbavalli from city's northeast Mahadevapura assembly segment termed it a daylight robbery by son (Kumaraswamy) of soil and his holy government."While central government is working on reducing price of petrol and diesel @hd_kumaraswamy's government has increased tax on them by Rs 1.60 per litre.
Tell me one good thing this government has done to Kannidagas in last 6 months (since it came into being in May)," said Limbavalli in a tweet.(Except for headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)