The Congress on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for doing "electoral drama" ahead of elections in five states over rising prices of petrol and diesel and said that the government has fleeced the common people through "draconian taxation" of Rs 13 lakh crore.

"Whenever there are elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts expressing his concerns over rising prices of petrol and diesel. This is nothing but but electoral drama, Congress spokesperson R.P.N. Singh told the media here.

He referred to Mod's meeting with global oil and gas experts on Monday and said such news reports come during election periods even though the Modi government keeps burdening common people with central taxes on petrol and diesel.

"Facing public ire and imminent defeat in the five states going to elections, Modi government is indulging in 'event management' and 'news planning'," Singh said.

He said measures are not being taken to provide relief to people and demanded that petrol and diesel should be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"Farmers are dependent on diesel for the tractors, irrigation pump sets, and electricity and rent vehicles to take produce to the mandis. They are badly hit. Prices of essential commodities are impacting all sections of the society -- middle class, poor, women, commuters," Singh said.

Referring to the government cutting down price of petrol and diesel earlier this month, he said the prices are "back to square one".

He said that international crude oil prices have been gone down by $5 per barrel in the last nine days, yet there is no respite in rising prices of petrol and diesel.

--IANS

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