Kolkata: The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said it is up to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council and the states to decide as to when they want petrol, diesel and other petroleum products to come under the purview of the GST.
Responding to a question by ETV BHARAT Reporter Papri Chatterjee on the issue, the Finance Minister said "Whenever the states are ready to bring in petroleum under the GST, an amendment will not be required. It is now up to the states and the GST Council to take a call on when they want it to happen."
The issue of petro products coming under the purview of the GST has been a much-debated topic for some time now. Playing a balancing act, the FM said it is upto the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council and the states, to decide on the issue.
"Even as the GST was framed and rolled out, a lot of discussion had taken place about petrol and petroleum products. At that time my predecessor, the late Arun Jaitleyji made a provision. The amendment was inclusive of zero-rated petroleum product provision in GST," she added.
Read more:Govt has informally proposed GST rate rejig once a year: FM
On bringing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for disinvestment of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), she stressed that that public money will remain safe and the move will bring in more transparency and discipline.
"IPO will be issued for the general public to become shareholders in the LIC. There is no question of public money being unsafe. It will be a public holding where a regulatory body will be in place. Thus, all of us are going to be more transparent and disciplined about responding. Everyone's situation still continues to be the same," Sitharaman said replying to a question from ETV BHARAT.
