Opposition criticises govt for hiking petrol, diesel prices

Opposition on Monday criticised the government in Lok Sabha for increasing duty on petrol and diesel in the Budget saying it would hurt the common man and must be withdrawn.

Initiating the debate on the Budget 2019-20, Congress member Shashi Thraoor questioned the wisdom of the government in increasing the duty on petrol and diesel at a time when the price of crude oil has been declining in the international market.

In her budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Friday raised excise duty and road and infrastructure cess on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre each to raise Rs 24,000- 28,000 crore on an annual basis.

Following the decision, the petrol price went up by a minimum of Rs 2.40 per litre and diesel by a minimum of Rs 2.36 per litre.

"The common man is already paying the highest fuel prices in the world because of this government's tax on petrol and diesel at a time when the prices of fuel are dropping world wide," Tharoor said.

Participating in the discussion, T R Baalu (DMK) said rise in fuel price will have a cascading impact on price situation and demanded that it should be withdrawn immediately.

"Common man will suffer because of increase in prices of petrol and diesel... why common man is being punished like that," he questioned.

Besides demanding withdrawal of price hike, Baalu also said that petrol and diesel should be brought within the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) arguing that it would help in substantially bringing down of fuel prices.

Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee said that hike in prices of petrol and diesel is having "tremendous impact on the daily life of the people".

He wanted to know why the government raised the fuel prices when the crude prices in the global market were showing a declining trend during the last three months.