Kerala government can reduce petrol, diesel price by reducing tax: V Muraleedharan

Amid reports of petrol and diesel prices reaching record high levels, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Thursday that the taxes on petroleum products are shared between the state and central governments and asked if Kerala government is ready to reduce taxes."There are many factors concerning the price of fuel as about half of the price of petrol is tax. People get many benefits from the tax on fuel which is levied by the state and central government. If the state government wants to reduce the price, they should reduce the tax," he said.

The minister said that the central government implements various welfare schemes such as the construction of roads and houses from the tax it gets.

"A large portion of the tax levied by the Central Government is transferred to the state for welfare schemes . The rice provided free of cost to the people by the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala comes from the tax imposed. If the state government doesn't want all such benefits and then it should reduce taxes," he said.

The union minister also referred to the remarks of Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac. "Thomas Isaac had earlier said that they will not reduce the tax. We didn't say something lke this. We have reduced in various stages earlier," Muraleedharan said.

( With inputs from ANI )