Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal demanded a ₹10 per litre cut in fuel prices, hours after the Centre announced a reduction of ₹2.5 per litre in prices of petrol and diesel on Thursday.
“Modi government raised excise duty on petrol by ₹10 and today reduced only ₹2.50. This is cheating. Centre should bring down petrol prices at least by ₹10,” Mr. Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari mocked the CM, saying his comment meant he wanted to help Delhi by reducing petrol prices by ₹10 a litre. He welcomed the decision of the Central government to reduce excise duty on petrol by ₹2.50/litre and also lauded BJP ruled Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for following the step of Central government and announcing a cut in VAT by ₹2.50/ litre and ultimately giving a relief of ₹5/ litre in their respective States.
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Seeks relief for Delhiites
Mr. Tiwari demanded that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government must also to cut VAT on fuel by 2.50/litre so that the people of Delhi may also get relief of ₹5/litre on the fuel price.
Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the Delhi government owed “much more” to Delhiites and demanded it reduce the petrol price by ₹10.50 and diesel price by ₹7.92 per litre.
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“Union Finance Minister asking State governments to reduce price by ₹2.50 is not applicable to Delhi. Kejriwal government is pocketing arbitrarily increased 12% VAT on petrol and 10.5% VAT on diesel,” he charged.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj, meanwhile, alleged that the Centre is “fooling” the people. “For four years, the prices of petrol and diesel were increased and now the Centre is fooling people by decreasing it by ₹2.50 per litre,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)