Opposition seeks PM’s response to hike in fuel prices

Business Advisory Committee agrees to discuss price rise and Ukraine war

A scene at a petrol filling station in Chennai. File | Photo Credit: M. Vedhan

Opposition members of the Lok Sabha on Monday raised the issue of consistent hike in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas driving inflation, and sought a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

The Opposition wasn’t willing to buy the government’s argument that high fuel prices were linked to the Russia-Ukraine war, and demanded a a discussion on the price rise.

The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) that discussed the Lok Sabha’s legislative agenda, sources said, agreed to have a discussion on the price rise as well as the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the House, Leader of the Congress in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the common people were in distress as “their pockets are being emptied” because of rising prices.

“Our party chief Sonia Gandhi has decided that we will run a ‘Mehngai-mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ [Inflation-free India campaign] because the prices of petrol, diesel, CNG, PNG are continuously rising,” he stated.

‘Contention not true’

“They are contending that due to the Russia-Ukraine war, prices are rising. This is not true as we import about 0.5 per cent oil from Russia. This government in the last about eight years has earned 26 lakh crore [in excise duty on petrol and diesel],” he noted.

He also raised the issue of over 800 drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines set for a price hike from April. “They say we have brought ‘achche din’, but for the common people, there cannot be more ‘bure din’ than this. That is why we demand that the rise in prices be rolled back and a debate on this issue held in this House,” he observed.

‘Salaried class most affected’

DMK leader T.R. Baalu said the salaried class was the most affected by the price rise. He wondered how come prices of petrol and diesel had increased by ₹4 in the past one week alone. For the one week, India had been on fire. “They should do it the way the UPA government did when it gave ₹10 lakh crore as subsidy and kept prices of petrol under check. Otherwise, let them bring back administered price mechanism”.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, “This issue should be discussed in the House and we want to hear from the Prime Minister, where this will stop”.