The Left parties have slammed the yet another hike in Excise duties on fuel, saying the hikes were meant to offset the losses to government revenue due to the tax concessions provided to corporates and were punishing the common man.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the hikes have come at a time when international oil prices had fallen by nearly 50 per cent from 2014. That year, the base price of petrol was ₹47.12. In 2021, it was ₹29.34. The tax component was nearly 38 percent of the cost.
The party pointed out that the tax levied by the Centre increased by a whopping 217 per cent since the Modi government took over in 2014.
“These hikes in the Excise duties are clearly meant to offset the losses to government revenues due to the tax concessions provided to corporates and income tax payees,” the Polit Bureau said in a statement.
It noted that there had been a significant reduction in the tax revenues earned via corporate and income tax. The corporate tax revenue had dipped from 6.81 to 6.38 lakh crores in comparison to the previous year, while the income tax revenue had come down from 5.61 lakh crore to 5.47 lakh crore.
“The Modi government’s bonanza to the rich and its cronies is sought to be made up by these Excise duty hikes imposing further burdens on the people, who are already groaning under the double whammy attack on their livelihoods by the pandemic and the economic recession,” it stated. The hike would have a cascading inflationary effect that would further worsen the economic recession, it added.
Govt insensitive: CPI
CPI general secretary D. Raja said it was cruel to give an absolute free hand to the oil companies to hike the prices as they pleased. “This clearly shows the government’s insensitivity towards the common people who are left to suffer,” he observed.
CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya alleged that the government was robbing the poor to reward the rich. He tweeted, “India’s top billionaires added Rs 13 lakh crore to their wealth during the Covid19 crisis. Modi govt didn’t bother to tax this added wealth of the super rich, it only taxed the common people by imposing cess on petrol and diesel. Rob the poor, reward the rich: that’s #Modinomics!”