Amaravati: With an aim to shore up the state’s finances hit by COVID-19, the AP govt on Fri. declared the levy of a road cess, therefore rising the costs of petrol & diesel by INR. One per liter.
An ordinance seeking to amend the APVAT Act, 2005, has been promulgated by state governor Biswabhushan Harichandan within the in the evening, offering for levy & collection of a road development (devt) cess of 1 rupee per liter on petrol & diesel.
As per sources, the extra load on users on account(a/c) of cess would be about 600 crores per annum.
As per the officer announcement from that state revenue dept., the economic activity has come to a suspend within the state ever from lock-down has been enforced because of the COVID-19-19 epidemic, affecting the revenues of the State during this mos of Apr, May, Jun & Jul. In Apr, the revenue realised within the state has been only INR 1,323 cr as over INR 4,480 cr in Apr 2019 that accounts for only 29.5% of the overall awaited revenue. Similar trends have been noticed for the mos of May, Jun, Jul & Aug.
Apart from the fall in revenues, the Govt of India(In) has also not declared the GST compensation for the yr. 2024-21 till now. Awhile the pressure on revenues from all sources continued, there is a steep rise within the expenditure relating to the health solutions for combating COVID-19-19 epidemic. Furthermore, the govt is also executing multiple schemes for the welfare of citizens from downtrodden sections.
“The twin effect of fall in revenues & improved expenditure on health solutions & welfare schemes has effected the capital expenditure on infra-structure development (devt),” Rajat Bhargava, special chief secretary (revenue), stated.
Taking all this factors into consideration & maintaining in see the necessity of allotting committed funds to the road development (devt) within the state, the state govt has ruled to levy “Road Development (devt) Cess” of Re One per liter on petrol & diesel apart from the existing levies on the 2 products within the people concern, the officer said within the announcement.
“The proceeds of the Road Development (devt) Cess that going to be about INR 500 cr per annum shall be transferred to the AP Road Development (devt) Corporation for exclusive utilize in developing road infra-structure,” he added further.