From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Sep 20: In a bid to corner the Narendra Modi regime on the sharp rise in prices of petrol and diesel leading to the consequent increase in prices of essential commodities despite the fall in international crude prices, the Congress party has urged the Centre to bring all petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Accusing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitely for taking the citizens of India for a ride by raking in huge amounts in the form of excise duty, KPCC President Dr G Parameshwara on Wednesday said the Modi regime had increased the excise duty 14 times since coming to power in 2014 during the last three years from 9.5 % to a whopping 21.5 %.

The whopping hike in the excise duty alone has resulted in raking in revenues to the tune of Rs 2,42,961 crore in September this year from Rs 77,982 crore in 2014, the KPCC chief said and wondered where has the additional revenue gone and whether the people have benefitted.

"Did the Modi government passed on the benefits to the public?" Dr Parameshwara asked and said bringing petrol and diesel under the GST would reduce prices of fuel by nearly 50%.

Taunting the Prime Minister by quoting his tweet as Chief Minister of Gujarat on May 23, 2012 on the increase of petrol and diesel during the UPA regime, when he said "Massive hike in petrol prices is a prime example of the failure of Congress-led UPA. This will put a burden on hundreds of crores on Gujarat,’’ Dr Parameshwara asked Modi and Jaitely to clarify their stand now.

On the contrary, BJP’s new culture minister KJ Alphonse from Kerala had the audacity to say that people who have cars or two-wheelers can obviously afford to pay the high prices for petrol and diesel. "This explains the mindset of BJP ministers. Evidently, they want all the people to travel by foot if they cannot afford the high prices of petroleum products," the KPCC chief said.

He said even the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan too has been advocating inclusion of all petroleum products under the ambit of GST.

"While international crude oil prices plummet, petrol-diesel prices skyrocket," the Congress leader said.

Apart from excise duty, the cost of crude oil and refining cost declined from Rs 44.8 a litre to Rs 26.7 a litre, oil marketing companies margin increased from Rs 3.2 to Rs 4.1, dealers’ commission has increased from Rs 2 to Rs 3.2 per litre, VAT up from 11.9 to 15 per litre during 2014-17, Dr Parameshwara said.

He pointed out that fuel prices were low in other South Asian countries also.

The Congress accused the NDA Government of “cheating the public” without substantiating reasons for the hike.

Though globally, crude oil prices per barrel has declined from $ 96 in 2014 to $ 52 now, the Centre has not made any efforts to cut fuel prices, he said.

On the demonetisation of high value currencies by the Modi government, Dr Parameshwara said the country’s GDP plummeted from 10.3 % in 2010-11 to 5.7 % in 2017-18.

All sectors of the economy have been slowed down owing to demonetisation and implementation of GST, he said pointing out that all economists, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former RBI governors Raghuram Rajan, Y V Reddy, D Subbarao, Nobel prize winner Dr Amartya Sen and even BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy had predicted the depression in the economy, Dr Parameshwara said.