TMC slams Centre in Parl over rising fuel prices
NEW DELHI: Claiming that the “economy has been shattered” under the present dispensation at the Centre, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Monday raised the deplorable condition the common man has to undergo due to the stifling surge in prices of cooking gas, petrol and diesel during a debate in Parliament.
“The economy has been shattered. The Excise revenue has increased from Petroleum products by over 94 per cent from Rs 17,200 crores to Rs 33,430 crores, from 2014- 2020. The government’s collection from the levy on Petroleum products has increased 33 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Central taxes on Petrol and
Diesel rose by 307 per cent in the last six years, allowing the Union government to mop up Rs. 2.94 lakh crore through taxes on fuel between April 2020 and January 2021,” the TMC member said.
“In the last three years, under the central Excise taxes, a whopping Rs. 14 lakh crore has been collected by the Centre and the states combined. However, the Centre has changed the way that the taxes are shared with the states, and states are not getting the share. The central government is getting a larger part of it and so the states find themselves fiscally cornered. This is again against the federal structure,” she added.
Dastidar also stood up in Lok Sabha, flashed raw brinjal, and then took a bite out of it during a discussion on the issue of price rise, underscoring the high gas prices. “Does the government want us to eat raw vegetables,” she asked.
Making a scathing attack on Union minister Smriti Irani, she said: “When the government was not in power, she slammed the then government over the rising price of the gas cylinder. Now, I would like to know her views on the current price of LPG cylinders. Lakhs of the woman in the village using the traditional ‘chulha’ as they are not able to refill the cooking gas cylinder, received under the Ujjwala scheme.”