Bhubaneswar: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday passed the buck to the state government on the issue of slashing taxes on petroleum products.

Pradhan said: "Earlier, Odisha government was collecting Rs 3,000 crore as taxes from petroleum products in 2014. Now it is collecting Rs 7,000 crore per annum. They should reduce the tax on petroleum products to provide relief to the people."

Pradhan also hinted how other states, including Rajasthan and Bengal, had already slashed VAT on petroleum products.

Reacting to the Union petroleum minister's suggestion, BJD leader Pratap Deb said: "Instead of counselling us they should think about what the Centre has done with the profit it has availed of in the past four years with hike in excise duty. When the price of crude oil in international market was less, the Centre went on increasing excise duty and earned a lot of money. But now it is not ready to cut excise duty."

He said: "While the price of crude oil was $116 per barrel during the UPA regime, it is now $73 per barrel. When the BJP government came to power, it was $34 per barrel. Modi government has hiked excise duty from six per cent to 19 per cent on petrol and 15 per cent on diesel. The fuel prices will definitely come down if the Centre cuts excise duty."

Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said: "We will not be able to reduce the VAT on petroleum products. The Centre should bring a unified policy and the issue should be taken up at the GST council."

Behera said: "These states earlier used to collect VAT to the tune of 30 per cent and now they have slashed it to 26 per cent. They had already collected huge revenue. But we are collecting 26 per cent, which is comparatively less than many other states."

At present, the state is collecting 26 per cent VAT on petroleum products. While the Centre collects Rs 19.48 per litre of petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre of diesel, the state gets Rs 15.58 from petrol and Rs 15.33 from diesel. The state government is expected to collect Rs 5,600 crore in revenue from petroleum products in the current fiscal.