Congress is looting people by hiking sales tax on petrol and diesel: Capt Chowta

Congress is looting people by hiking sales tax on petrol and diesel: Capt Chowta

mangaloretoday.com

Mangaluru, June 18, 2024: Captain Brijesh Chowta, Dakshina Kannada MP-elect, said on Monday that the Congress has begun to loot Karnataka by increasing sales tax on petrol and diesel by 3.92% and 4.1%, respectively. But the BJP will not allow it to continue, he added.

After participating in a protest, organised by the BJP against the hike in fuel prices in Mangaluru, Capt. Chowta posted on X that after depleting the State coffers, the Congress government now wants to empty people’s pockets too. “...We wont’t let them (Congress government) make Karnataka pay for their unscientific schemes and visionless governance...”

The Karnataka BJP unit held a protest on Monday condemning the state government’s move to hike sales tax on Petrol and Diesel. Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Centre has monopolised tax collection.

Former chief minister and BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai accused the Congress government of betraying the state’s common people by imposing taxes on the poor under the pretext of providing benefits of guarantee schemes and comparing the state to other states.

He stated that, in the name of guarantees, no developmental activities are taking place in the state, and the state’s progress is zero. The state is financially bankrupt, and it will take several years to rectify this. The state Congress government is directly responsible for this, he asserted.

Questioning the fairness, he added, “How is it justifiable to impose taxes on the poor and extort money from them under the pretext of providing freebies while the Congress bakes its political bread on the suffering of the poor?”

The notification by the finance department in Karnataka, dated June 15, effected changes to the Karnataka Sales Tax Act. With this, the sales tax for petrol increased from 25.92 per cent to 29.84 per cent and for diesel, the rise was from 14.34 per cent to 18.44 per cent. Following the revision, the petrol price in Bengaluru is Rs 102.84 per litre, up from Rs 99.84, while the diesel price is Rs 88.95, up from Rs 85.93.