Goa petrol, diesel dealers face Rs 6-crore loss after excise duty, VAT cut

The sudden cut in excise duty and value-added tax on petrol and diesel on Diwali eve by the Centre and the Goa government has resulted in a loss of around Rs 6 crore for dealers of the two fuels in the state, a senior official from the industry said on Friday.

All Goa Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association President Paresh Joshi told PTI that all the 130 dealers in the state have suffered a cumulative loss of around Rs 6 crore. He said oil companies had asked the dealers to keep their tanks full on the eve of Diwali as filling terminals would be closed for the next two days. “When the dealers had taken the stock to their optimum limit, there was sudden announcement of reduction in prices by the Centre and later by the state government. This resulted in whopping losses for the dealers who had purchased the fuels at older rates,” Joshi said. Post-excise duty cut by the Centre on November 3 and then VAT reduction by the Goa government, the price of petrol came down by Rs 12 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 17 a litre in the coastal state. Most of the dealers have faced a loss of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, depending on their storage capacity, and it will take one or one-and-a- half months to make up for the losses, Joshi said. He demanded that the government ask oil companies to provide relief to the dealers through invoices that would be raised in the future or they should be paid back in cash the amount they have lost due to the cut in rates. Joshi, however, said the dealers are happy that common citizens have been given relief, but the former should not be made to pay for that.