Questioning the Centre’s claims that servicing of oil bonds is the main reason for not rolling back taxes on petroleum products, the Opposition Congress reiterated its demand that the benefit of reduced international crude oil prices should be passed on to the people by reducing the prices of petrol-diesel-LPG gas be reduced accordingly. The party also maintained that petrol and diesel should be brought under the GST.
‘Roll back excise’
In a press conference held here on Tuesday, AICC general secretary Ajay Maken urged the Narendra Modi government to immediately roll back the excise duty on petrol and diesel imposed in the last seven years.
Maken said the Centre has spent ₹73,440 crore on servicing of oil bonds in the last seven years. “Against this, they have collected ₹22.34-lakh crore through taxes on petroleum products. Spending on servicing of oil bonds is just 3.2 per cent of the tax collection from petroleum products; real reason is not oil bonds but reduction in subsidy by 12 times and increase of taxes by three times,” Maken said.
He said in 2020-21 alone, “Modi Tax” on petrol-diesel was ₹4.53-lakh crore. “It is three times more than in 2013-14,” he said. Citing the official figures of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, he said the UPA government gave subsidy on petroleum products to the tune of ₹1.64-lakh crore in 2012-13 and ₹1.47-lakh crore in 2013-14. “On the contrary, the present Modi government drastically reduced this amount year after year to ₹12,231 crore in 2020-21,” he added.
He alleged that the Daily Dynamic Pricing is a fraud on consumers. International crude prices have dropped but fuel prices remain the same, he said.