Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced an Rs 2.5 cut in per litre price of diesel and petrol and asked state governments to announce a matching reduction.
Jaitley said that the Centre will cut Rs 1.50 in excise duty on fuel while an additional Rs 1 will be absorbed by the Oil Marketing Companies.
After the centre's announcement, the Assam government has decided to slash the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 per litre which will provide the consumers in the state relief of Rs 5. The reduced rates have come into effect in the state from midnight.
"Assam government also decided to reduce Rs. 2.50 on both petrol and diesel, thus making it Rs.5 less than the prevailing rates" said finance minister of the state Himanta Biswa Sarma.
"In order to ease burden on common people & in tandem with the announcement of FM Shri @arunjaitley ji to cut prices of petrol & diesel by Rs 2.50, Govt of Assam has decided to reduce tax on petrol & diesel prices by Rs 2.50 thereby making them cheaper by Rs 5 in Assam." – CM Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted.
It may be mentioned that the reduction by central government comes ahead of assembly elections in five states: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.
