True figures will out.

"Petrol price can go down to Rs 75 a liter across the country if brought under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) but there is a lack of political will, which is keeping Indian oil product prices at one of the highest in the world, economists at SBI (State Bank of India) said on Thursday." Revenue loss for combined Center and states will be Rs 1 trillion, which is only 0.4% of GDP. Price of petrol is Rs 91.17 per liter in Delhi and Rs 97.57 in Mumbai. "A present, states choose to levy a combination of ad velorem tax, cess, extra VAT/surcharge based on their needs..." Why are states loath to agree to GST on fuel? Because, state governments, especially those run by opposition parties, do not trust the central government. Last year, the Center refused to pay compensation for a shortfall in GST collections and asked states to borrow money to meet their budget needs. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attacked opposition parties in Parliament for not accepting her excuse that this was 'force majeure' or 'act of God'. She conveniently forgot that force majeure applies to companies which cannot pay creditors because of some natural calamity and not to the central government which can print money. However, this is not the only way that this government has shortchanged the states. States are supposed to get 41% of all taxes collected by the Center according to the Finance Commission set up to advise revenue distribution according to population and economic development of individual states. However, the Center blatantly cheats states of their share of taxes by collecting 19.9% of revenue through cess and surcharges which are not shared with the states. How do you calculate your share of anything if government figures are suspect? The government's calculation of GDP back series has been questioned for using a fictitious database. Two external members of the National Statistical Commission resigned because the government suppressed true figures regarding employment and GDP. "Throughout the pandemic, Indian journalists, scientists and citizens have had to battle against the Indian state for access to basic data, which is often easily available in most other parts of the world, including in resource constrained Latin American countries," wrote Rukmini S. Prof Renuka Sane and Ajay Shah used data from "the Center of Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)'s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, which talks to over 200,000 households three times a year, seeking details about the whereabouts of each family member. The survey does not ask about cause of death." "Their estimates show that deaths from all causes almost doubled between May and August compared to the same period for past years." When an American company Recorded Future disclosed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had shut down Mumbai's power supply last October, a minister immediately said it was 'human error' and not cyber attack. It was worse than just Mumbai. Pesky Americans have now identified the Chinese hacker group as RedEcho which attacked power plants in Delhi and Karnataka, in addition to Mumbai, as well as ports in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai. Unfortunately, Americans cannot be beaten and locked up indefinitely for sedition. Dang furriners.