Bhubaneswar: A day Odisha government notified a 4 per cent reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on per litre of petrol and diesel, the private bus owners’ association on Saturday slashed the bus fares under the automatic fare revision mechanism.
The fare of ordinary and express buses has been reduced by 5 paise per km while that of deluxe and AC deluxe buses by 10 paise per km. The fare of super-premium buses has been slashed by 15 paise per km, secretary of Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association, Debendra Sahu informed.
After revision of VAT, petrol and diesel prices had decreased further by Rs 3.04 and Rs 2.86 respectively. The new rates came into effect from Friday midnight.
This followed the Centre’s excise duty cut of Rs 5 and Rs 10 on petrol and diesel respectively.
Petrol now costs Rs 101.66 a litre in Bhubaneswar, while diesel is priced at Rs Rs 91.45 a litre.
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Stating that reduction in VAT will be a major relief to the people of Odisha, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said that petrol and diesel prices in the state are likely to be one of the lowest in the country.
On October 16, the government had increased the fares of ordinary and express category buses by three paise per kilometre; deluxe and AC deluxe buses by six paise per kilometres and super-premium buses by nine paise per km.