'Poor Pay For Gifts Crony Capitalists Get': Rahul Gandhi Slams Centre Over Hike In Fuel Prices

Rahul Gandhi's attacked at the Centre came on a day when oil companies raised petrol and diesel prices by 48 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre.

Petrol and diesel prices now are higher than what they were in 2014, Gandhi said. (File Photo/ AFP)

New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday evening once again upped his ante against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government for rapid rise in fuel prices, which saw a jump for ninth straight day today. Hitting out at the ruling government, Gandhi took to micro-blogging site and shared a comparison chart which showed prices of crude oil, petrol and diesel during former PM Manmohan Singh-led UPA 2 government and current PM Narendra Modi-led NDA government. “Middle class, poor pay for gifts crony capitalists get,” Gandhi captioned the tweet. He also used a hashtag in Hindi that translates to "Shame on a government that loots".

Middle class and the poor pay for the gifts the crony capitalists get. #शर्म_करो_लुटेरी_सरकार pic.twitter.com/q69cqlF83Q

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 15, 2020

Gandhi's attacked at the Centre came on a day when oil companies raised petrol and diesel prices by 48 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre. This is the ninth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs. Gandhi also said that on May 16, 2014, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, the international crude oil price was USD 107.09 per barrel, while it is USD 40.66 on June 15, 2020, when the NDA is in government. Despite the crude costing USD 66.43 less per barrel, petrol and diesel prices now are higher than what they were in 2014, he said. The Congress has been demanding that petrol and diesel prices be brought under the ambit of GST. The opposition party has also demanded a rollback of excise duty hikes on petrol, diesel to bring down their prices. The grand old party has maintained that the government is earning out of the pockets of the poor by imposing high taxes on petrol and diesel, depriving the common man the benefit of lower crude oil prices. As per a price notification of state oil marketing companies earlier today, petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 76.26 per litre from Rs 75.78, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 74.26 a litre from Rs 74.03. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT. This is the ninth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus. In nine hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 5 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.87 a litre. The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.