Over 1,400 petrol pumps of Jharkhand will remain closed on Tuesday as petroleum dealers will stage a day-long strike to demand that the state government reduce VAT on diesel and stop the sale of adulterated fuel in the name of biodiesel.
Dhanbad-based Ashok Singh, the state president of Jharkhand Petroleum Dealers’ Association, said, “The present rate of VAT of 22% on diesel is too high. We have demanded that the state government bring it down to 16%.”
He said a delegation of members of the association met state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon in Ranchi to air their grieveances and asked him to constitute a committee to look into their demands. But since the government had not responded, the association had been compelld to go ahead with the strike.
