New Delhi: Oil and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha that petroleum products are constitutionally included under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Article 279A (5) of the Constitution provides that the GST Council should recommend the date on which the tax shall be levied on petroleum crude, high-speed diesel, motor spirit, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel. If the move sees the light of day, prices of petroleum products will fall by a big margin.

As per the section 9(2) of the CGST Act, the inclusion of all excluded petroleum products, including petrol and diesel in GST will require the recommendation of the GST Council, the Rajya Sabha was told.

All states and Union Territories (UT) with Legislature are represented in the GST Council by their minister-in-charge of finance or taxation or any other minister nominated by the state/UT. Any decision regarding levy of GST on petroleum products has to be decided as per the recommendations of the GST Council.

The prices of petroleum products in the country are benchmarked to international product prices. Generally, the prices of sensitive petroleum products in the country are higher/lower than other countries due to various factors, including the prevailing tax regime and subsidy compensations by the respective governments. The details of prices of petrol and diesel at Delhi and Mumbai are available at Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) website.