Kolkata, Jun 25 : Providing some cushion to people hit by Centre's decision to hike cooking gas price by Rs.50 per cylinder, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today decided to withdraw cess of Rs.16 per LPG cylinder in the state with immediate effect.
Banerjee, who heads the Trinamool Congress, the second largest UPA ally, said she was “pained” by Centre's move and asked it to reduce the LPG price for the benefit of the common man.
She said that the state government would not collect cess of Rs 16 per cylinder and this would effectively put the burden of hike at Rs 34 and not Rs 50 on consumers in the state.
“I consulted my Finance Minister Amit Mitra after the midnight decision of the UPA government to hike prices of diesel, LPG and Kerosene oil and decided to withdraw cess collected by the state government on each LPG cylinder to give relief to common people,” the chief minister told reporters here.
This, she said, would entail loss of Rs 75 crore to the state exchequer “which we will mop up from other sources of income. But our government does not want to put more burden on the people”.
A notification in this regard would be made on Monday. “I am pained at such a decision by the Centre,” she said adding, “we would like to urge the Centre to reduce LPG price”.
Banerjee also deprecated the erstwhile Left Front government in the state, saying it had not bothered to lift the cess on LPG.
“Left Front talks big, but does nothing substantial. We have shown that we could do it,” she said. PTI
