‘For BJP, rise in GDP is hike in fuel price’
RANCHI: Blaming the high excise duty being levied on imported crude oil, Congress national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh on Thursday demanded the central government to bring down the tax component in order to being down the fuel prices to provide relief to the common man.
Addressing reporters at the party headquarters in Ranchi after participating in a cycle rally organised by the youth Congress, Vallabh said the central government was fooling people by saying that the spike in prices of petrol and diesel was due to increase in price of crude oil in international prices.
“The BJP has redefined the meaning of the GDP. When they say the GDP is increasing of the country, they mean price of gas, diesel and petrol is increasing. They used to make lots of hue and cry about petrol prices. Where are they now,” said Vallabh.
Explaining the taxation component in the fuel price, Vallabh said currently, the base price of petrol in India is ₹31. “However, the centre is levying ₹32.5 per litre as excise duty on petrol, which is more than 100% over the base price. This government has increased excise duty from ₹9.48 per litre on petrol in 2014 during the UPA government to ₹32.5 now, which is around 250% increase. Similarly, in diesel, the excise duty has been increased from ₹3.56 per litre in 2014 to ₹31.83 now, which is an increase of around 800%,” said Vallabh.
The Congress leader, who contested on party ticket against former CM Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur in 2019 assembly elections, said the fuel prices would reduce by ₹25-30 per litre if the Centre brings down the excuse duty to the levels during the UPA regime.
“If the Centre reduces duty, the VAT levied by the state government would also reduce automatically as the VAT is levied on the overall price of petrol. Also the central government is fooling people by claiming that the high fuel prices was solely due to the price of crude oil in international market,” said Vallabh.
Demanding the Centre to immediately reduce the excise duty, the Congress leader said it was important to provide relief to the common man as they are already under financial stress due to the pandemic and job loss.
The conference was also attended by state Congress chief and state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, Congress legislature party leader and rural devlopment minister Alamgir Alam, health minister Banna Gupta, state working president Rajesh Thakur and legislator Dipika Pandey Singh.