New VAT rates to shoot up prices of petrol, cars and rice in Punjab

Prices of various commodities including petrol, car, wheat and rice are set to go up here with UT Chandigarh Administration on Friday announcing to raise VAT rates on a slew of commodities with immediate effect.

The Administration has raised Value Added Tax (VAT) rates on petrol and premium petrol to 24.74 per cent and on automobiles to 13.2 per cent while tax on coal, rice, wheat, paddy has been hiked to 5 per cent each from 4 per cent.

Previous VAT rates on petrol was 20 per cent, premium petrol 22 per cent and automobiles 12.5 per cent.

With the hike in tax on petrol, the price of fuel is set to jump by Rs 2.10 per litre in the city, said a petroleum dealer here. At present, price of petrol is Rs 59.53 per litre in Chandigarh.

After the hike in tax on petrol, its price will come on par with that of neighbouring Haryana, the dealer further said.