With petrol hitting ₹100 mark and diesel price at its highest ever, Telangana Congress leaders and cadre across the State staged protest at petrol stations across the State and blamed the BJP government at the Centre and the TRS government in the State for filling their coffers ‘looting people’ even in the pandemic.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy who staged a protest at Secretariat petrol station said petrol prices had risen by ₹25 and diesel by ₹23.90 in just one year. Both Modi and KCR governments at the Central and state levels had made life miserable for people. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has got the dubious distinction of raising the prices of petrol and diesel for 43 times in one year,” he said.
Mr. Reddy said that since coming to power in 2014, both BJP and TRS had increased taxes on petrol, diesel and gas frequently. He said that the retail price of LPG refill had doubled, from around ₹410 in 2014 to around ₹850 now. The TPCC chief reminded that in April 2014, when UPA-II demitted office, excise duty on litre petrol was ₹9.48 and diesel was ₹3.56. Excise duty had now increased by over 2.5 times on petrol and almost 8 times on diesel.
TPCC working president and Malkajgiri MP, A. Revanth Reddy who led protests at Ghatkesar on city outskirts targeted the PM and CM saying both had been inhuman in their approach when millions had lost jobs. Out of the ₹100 per litre Modi is levying a tax of ₹33 while KCR is collecting ₹32 per litre, he said speaking at Ghatkesar petrol station where a large number of cadre gathered.
The Malkajgiri MP argued that BJP government earned ₹3 lakh crore as excise duty in 2020 while it collected ₹11 lakh crore from 2014 to 2018. “This is nothing but looting. Hike has impacted all the sectors that are directly related to the common man like transport and essential commodities.”
CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka, who led the protests in Khammam said the UPA government did not pass on the burden to the common man when the crude oil prices in the international market were more than US$ 105 per barrel. Now though the prices havd come down by 50% in the international market Modi government had doubled the prices.
Criticising the TRS government, leaders said the Congress government in combined AP had levied VAT of 31% on petrol and 22.25% on diesel. But the TRS government was collecting a VAT of 35.2% on petrol and 27% on diesel.
TPCC working president, Ponnam Prabhakar and MLAs T. Jayaprakash Reddy, Seethakka, D. Sreedhar Babu, and AICC secretary Sampath Kumar held protests in their constituencies.
Novel protests were held across the State. In Himayathnagar TPCC general secretary Vinod Reddy rode a rickshaw from Himayathnagar to Liberty to register his protest.
