Fuel price: Low sale of fuel in Kerala will adversely affect tax revenue

Thiruvananthapuram: On average 1.2 crore litres of fuel is being sold in Kerala every day. Out of which, 60 percent is diesel and 40 percent petrol. A sale of Rs 47 crores of petrol and Rs 63 crores of diesel happens daily. 

Almost 45 percent of diesel sold in Kerala is used by vehicles belonging to other states. In the light of Kerala refusing to cut down on VAT, the vehicles on the borders of Kerala have started crossing boundaries and going to other states to fill up fuel. The low sale of fuel in Kerala will also adversely affect the tax revenue. 

In Parassala, located in Thiruvananthapuram near the border of Tamil Nadu, the daily sale of petrol was down from 1200 litres to 700 litres. Since there is not much difference in the rate of petrol, there are only slight changes in daily sales. In Padanthalumoodu in the Tamil Nadu region, the daily sale of petrol went from 1200-1300 litres to 1800 litres. 

In Tholpetty in Wayanad, the diesel sale went down by 1000 litres and petrol by 500 litres. A fall of almost 50 percent. In Kutta village in Karnataka, the diesel sale went up by 10 percent which means almost 300 litres of diesel. 

In the Bharat Petroleum pump in Thalapady on the Kerala border, the sale of petrol went down by 2000 litres and diesel by 2500 litres. In IOC, the first petrol pump in Thalapady on the Karnataka border, the petrol sale went up by 2300 litres and diesel by 6000 litres. 

In Thenmala in Kollam, instead of 6000 litres of petrol that was being sold daily before, only 3500-4000 litres is being sold now. Here petrol sales have not seen much difference. 

In Marayur in Idukki, the sale a few days ago was 2000 litres of petrol and 3800 litres of diesel. It has now become 1200 and 1600 litres respectively. People living on the border in this area are depending on the pumps in Tamil Nadu.