Karnataka's Congress government on Saturday hiked sales tax on fuel which will make petrol and diesel costlier. According to official sources, petrol will now go up by Rs 3 and diesel by Rs 3.5 per litre in the southern state with immediate effect.
The hike is expected to generate Rs 2,500-Rs 2,800 crore during the financial year, reports said.
A notification issued by the state Finance Department revealed the decision to hike sales tax on petrol by 3.92 percentage points, from 25.92 to 29.84 per cent. The tax on diesel was hiked by 4.1 percentage points, from 14.34 to 18.44 per cent.
The move, aimed at resource mobilisation, comes after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is also the finance minister, reviewed the state's revenue generation and fiscal position, reported news agency PTI.
During the meeting, the CM asked officials to work harder towards meeting revenue collection targets.
Hitting out at the government, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka said this "anti-people" Congress government is taking revenge on Kannadigas for voting BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
"Having emptied the state's coffers with its unscientific guarantee schemes the Congress government in Karnataka is going to fill the treasury by taxing the Kannadigas," he posted on 'X', adding that with this hike the government has "cut" into the public pocket.
Siddaramaiah has set aside Rs 52,009 crore for his government's flagship five guarantee schemes this year.
The Congress government's five guarantee schemes are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), payment of cash-in-lieu of the additional 5 kg of rice to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).