Industries Minister KT Rama Rao demanded that the Narendra Modi government apologise to the nation after accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre of looting the common man like dacoits with fuel prices and pathetically failing to cut prices despite sliding crude oil prices.
The Minister said in an open letter to the Centre on Thursday that the only way to escape the Centre’s blood thirst was to drive the BJP out of power. He said it was high time that the Modi government to stop looting the people, failing which the saffron party would be taught a lesson, accusing the BJP of hatching conspiracies to prevent discussions on such crucial issues in the Parliament.
All these days, the Centre had cited international crude oil prices as the cause of rising fuel prices, but these deceptive tactics had been exposed, he said, pointing out that the Centre was making lofty claims about importing crude oil at lower prices from Russia on the one hand, but not passing on the benefits to the general public on the other.
He stated that the Modi government’s claims of saving Rs.35,000 crore on crude oil imports benefited only a few oil companies. “In fact, the union government is importing crude oil at lower prices from Russia, refining it and selling the same to other countries. This is being hidden from public domain,” he said.
In 2013, the cost of crude oil barrel was US $110 and the cost of litre petrol was Rs.76. Now, when the cost of crude oil barrel had slumped to US$66, the cost of a litre of petrol was Rs.110, Rama Rao highlighted, saying that fuel prices were not being slashed despite the slump in crude oil, just to benefit a few corporate companies.
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Fuel prices had risen by 45 percent since 2014, with a cascading effect on all essential commodity prices, shattering the budgets of low and middle income groups, he said.
Aside from that, the Centre’s failure to reduce fuel prices was forcing public transportation organisations to raise fares, affecting the general public, the Minister said, adding that amidst the failure and illogical stand of the BJP government, inflation was also at a 45-year high.
With crude oil price now sliding to US$70 per barrel, the Minister demanded that the Centre abolish the cess on fuel prices.
Despite the fact that the Telangana government has not raised VAT since 2014, the Centre has amassed Rs.30 lakh crore through fuel price cess, he pointed out.
The Minister also slammed a few union ministers who advocated for bringing fuel prices under GST. “The LPG cylinder price, which is under GST, has shot up from Rs.400 to Rs.1200, making it the highest LPG cylinder price in the world,” Rama Rao said, seeking an explanation why the Centre could not control LPG prices despite it being under GST.
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