Baghel urges Sitharaman to sanction excise duty as before, says Chhattisgarh stares at Rs 1,000 cr loss due to agri cess

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has written a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to sanction the excise duty to the state as it was provided before.

The Chief Minister has stated the year 2020-21 has been an extremely difficult financial year, due to the pandemic.

"This year, due to the adverse impact of a pandemic on all the economic activities, State's own financial sources are expected to decrease by about 30 per cent. Recently, in the Union Budget for year 2021-22, a reduction in excise duty of petroleum products, gold and silver, and many other items and imposition of 'Agricultural Infrastructure Development Cess' has been announced. This is expected to cause an additional loss of Rs 900 crores to 1,000 crores to the state in the coming financial year," he said, according to a release by the state government.

Baghel has further stated that the state is yet to receive the amount of Rs 3,700 crores in the GST compensation fund from Central Government in the financial year 2020-21.

"After announcing 60 lakh tone rice quota for Chhattisgarh in past, Central Government has reduced the rice quota of the state by 16 lakh tonnes, due to which the state is likely to suffer a huge loss in the disposal of additional paddy collected by the state," he said.

He welcomed that the decision to set up 'Agricultural Infrastructure Development Fund'. However, he added that the decision to reduce excise duty would certainly have an adverse effect on the resources of the state.

"The excise duty deduction would cause additional damage to the state and its public welfare programme," he said.

Baghel has requested the Union Finance Minister that in view of the limited resources available to the states as compared to the Centre, Chhattisgarh should be provided ex-gratia amount as excise duty.

This would save the state from additional financial loss, he stressed.

( With inputs from ANI )