New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI): The Centre and the industry favour inclusion of petroleum products in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) but the GST Council will take a final call on it, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. Whatever the GST Council decides on including petroleum products within GST ambit, “we would stand by that,” Pradhan said in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

Five petroleum products– petrol, diesel, natural gas, crude oil and ATF — are still out of the ambit of GST. He informed the House that “in principle, the Government of India and the Petroleum Ministry are of the view that petroleum products should come under the GST regime.”

“The GST Council will take an appropriate action and at an appropriate time with due deliberation,” he said.

“When the GST Council framework was set up, at that time notionally all petroleum products were kept under the tax regime. But all states were of the view that their (tax) slabs and (implementation) dates would be decided by them,” he said.

On including Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) in the GST, he said, “The GST Council is the competent authority”.

Bringing petroleum products under the GST regime is expected to rationalise pricing across the country which would provide relief to farmers and commoners.

At present different state levies on these products have resulted in different pricing. Once these products are brought under the GST regime, there would be uniform pricing across India, the minister said.