Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of indulging in 'profiteering' by increasing excise duty on petroleum products and demanded that the taxes be brought down to the levels that prevailed during UPA rule.
Seeking to paint the Modi government as insensitive to the woes of the masses, Gandhi said in a statement: “For the first time in the history of independent India, the country is standing at the crossroads. On the one hand, the food providers of the country is protesting at the borders of Delhi for the last 44 days pressing for fulfilment of their justified demands, and on the other, the unbridled, insensitive and ruthless BJP government is engaged in breaking the backs of the poor farmers and the middle class.”
Attacking the government over the fuel price hike, she said in the midst of an economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Modi regime is filling its coffers by “turning a disaster into an opportunity”. “Today, the price of crude oil is 50.96 dollars per barrel, which is just Rs 23.43 per litre. Despite this, diesel is being sold at Rs 74.38 per litre and petrol at Rs 84.20 per litre. This is the highest in the last 73 years,” Gandhi said.
She criticised the government for not passing on the benefit of the falling oil prices in the international market to the common consumer, and said it had “broken all records of profiteering by indulging in extreme increase in excise duty.”
“In the last six-and-a-half years, the Modi government has by increasing excise duty taken Rs 19,00,000 crore from the pockets of the common man,” Gandhi said.
The government has upset the budget of every household by going in for a mammoth increase in prices of gas cylinders, she said.
Gandhi demanded that the government should bring the excise duty on petrol and diesel to the levels that prevailed during UPA rule.
She also demanded that the government should take back the three farm laws immediately and accept all the demands made by the farmers.
