Roll back fuel price hike: Congress

Terming the taxes on petroleum products as ‘Modi Tax,’ the Congress demanded the Narendra Modi government to immediately roll back the fuel price hike. The party said petrol and diesel prices have been spiralling upwards for the last 11 days.

Party’s chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said petrol prices have increased by ₹15.21 per litre and diesel prices by ₹15.33 after May, 2019. “What is shameful is that despite an open loot by imposing high taxes on petrol and diesel, the BJP government also wants to pass on the blame to Congress. Crude oil was $108/barrel on May 26, 2014 and $63.65/barrel on February 19, 2021. Despite that, petrol price was ₹71.51/ltr in May 2014 and has gone up to ₹90.19/ltr today. Price of crude oil has decreased by 41 per cent but petrol price has increased by 26 per cent,” he said addressing reporters here on Friday.

Congress spokesman Gourav Vallabh added that the BJP believes that everyone, except Modi government, is responsible for the fuel price hike.

100 per cent levy

He said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had assured Parliament that the Centre is putting some cess on petrol and diesel but it is not going to increase fuel prices. “What is the value of that statement?On the base price of ₹32.4 per litre, Centre charges an excise duty of ₹32.98, more than 100 per cent. For diesel, on a base price of ₹ 33, it charges an excise duty of ₹ 31.83, nearly 100 per cent,” Vallabh said.

Exploration down

He said the country’s dependence on imports is high and India could not do crude exploration in last 60-70 years. “The fact is, indigenous oil production exploration during UPA regime was 23.4 per cent, right now it is 15.8 per cent. Who is responsible for that,” he asked.