Govt taxing poor by raising oil prices: Congress

The Congress on Friday said the Centre was targeting the poorest of the poor by not reducing the taxes of LPG, kerosene and other petroleum products. The principal opposition party said the prices of essential commodities were mounting due to the Centre’s apathy towards the poor.

Party spokesperson Ajay Maken said the Centre had been providing “absurd reasons” such as ‘Hurricane Harvey and Irma’ for the increase of petrol and diesel prices.

He said the central excise duty was increased 11 times in last three-and-a-half years, resulting in a cumulative rise of 133.47 per cent on the price of petrol and 400.86 per cent on diesel.

“Not only this, the Modi government has robbed 18.11 crore LPG consumers of the country by increasing the prices of subsidised LPG cylinder by ₹75 in the past three years. The BJP government has not even spared the poorest of the poor – kerosene prices have recorded double-digit growth throughout this fiscal,” Maken said.

He said that while the Consumer Price Index recorded an increase of 3.36 per cent in August from a year earlier, the Wholesale Price Index rose to a four-month high to 3.24 per cent compared to the year-ago period. “This means fruits and vegetables have become costlier, thus ruining our household budgets. Due to rising fuel prices, it is natural that the cost of transportation and supply of food items increase, hence adversely impacting the savings of common people. Food inflation was driven by rising price trends of onion at 88.46 per cent, vegetables at 44.91 per cent fruits at 7.35 per cent and milk at 3.94 per cent,” Maken added. He said the Centre earned a windfall of around ₹2.5-lakh crore from the reduced price of crude oil. “Total contribution of petroleum to the Central and State exchequers stood at ₹5,24,304 crore in 2016-17. The increase in excise duty of petrol since May 2014 is 133.47 per cent, while the increase in excise duty of diesel since May 2014 is 400.86 per cent,” he said.