The Congress on Monday reiterated its stance that the Centre ought to share the benefits from low crude oil prices with people at a time the novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc in the economy. "It's not time for profiteering, it's time for the government to do profit-sharing, caring," the Congress urged the government to pass on the benefits with people amid lockdown due to COVID-19 and economic downturn.
"The BJP needs to realise that it has to stop solo profiteering; instead of 'stealing touch' it has to give healing touch," the grand old party took a jibe at the ruling party. Crude oil prices have dipped globally after Saudi Arabia launched a silent oil war against Russia's lack of cooperation to lower crude oil production last month.
However, the sharp fall in oil prices is going to prove a blessing in disguise to large oil-importing countries like India, who imports its 80 per cent and more of its annual oil requirements and its oil import bill runs into billions of dollars.
At the same time, the significant fall in global fall in crude oil prices is yet to translate into lower cost for fuels in India as the Centre increased the taxes on petrol and diesel last month to shore up revenue. The excise duties on the fuels were hiked by Rs 3 per liter and is expected to result in up to Rs 400 billion increase in annual revenue.
Taxes on petrol and diesel, which account for more than a third of retail fuel prices, are one of the biggest sources of income for the Central government, which has more than tripled revenue from taxes on fuel since first coming to power in 2014.
International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $32.96 a barrel Monday morning, down more than 3.2 per cent, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures stood at $27.46, more than 3 per cent lower.
