The Congress on Saturday demanded that the benefit of a sharp fall in international crude oil prices should be passed on to consumers immediately and attacked the Narendra Modi government for increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel to ensure that retail prices did not come down.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken told reporters at a press conference that the government should reduce the rates of petrol, diesel, and LPG by at least 35-40%.
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“The Modi-Shah government has looted the people by increasing excise duties and huge taxes on petroleum products and did not bring this under GST despite the consistent demand of Congress,” Mr Maken said after the Centre hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by a steep ₹3 per litre each, which will fetch an additional revenue ₹39,000 crore.
The Congress leader said that the party will democratically protest both inside and outside Parliament as the government had repeated its 2014-15 act of not passing on the gains arising from slump in crude prices.
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Mr Maken said the total incidence of excise duty on petrol had risen to ₹22.98 per litre and that on diesel to ₹18.83.
“The tax on petrol was ₹9.48 per litre when the Modi government took office in 2014 and that on diesel was ₹3.56 a litre,” he said.
