UP Minister Backs Fuel Price Hike, Claims '95% People Don't Use Petrol'

Tiwari also argued that fuel prices had not really risen in real terms when the per capita income now is compared to 2014, when a BJP-led government first came to power at the Centre.

UP Minister Upendra Tiwari (File Photo)

New Delhi: While the prices of petrol and diesel continue to surge and burn a hole in the common man's pocket, a minister of  Uttar Pradesh have come up with an absurd excuse for the fuel price hike. Dismissing criticism over the rising fuel prices, Uttar Pradesh minister Upendra Tiwari on Thursday said 95 percent people have no use for petrol.

Tiwari also argued that fuel prices had not really risen in real terms when the per capita income now is compared with that in 2014, referring to the year when a BJP-led government first came to power at the Centre.

Today, there are just a handful of people who travel in four-wheel vehicles and use petrol. At present, 95 per cent people don’t need petrol, Tiwari told reporters in Jalaun. Higher fuel costs, however, impact virtually every citizen. For example, they lead to an increase in the price of all commodities — including foodgrain, fruit and vegetables — that are transported from one part of the country to another, quoted PTI.

The UP minister's remark comes at a time when the prices of petrol have crossed the Rs 100 mark in most of the states and the price of deals nears the Rs 100/l mark. He claimed that the opposition doesn’t have any real issue to attack the government.

You see the data before 2014. What is the per capita income after the formation of the Modi and the Yogi governments? he said, referring to the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. Today, the per capita income is double,” he claimed.

He also referred to free schooling and the coronavirus vaccination offered by the government.

 

Earlier, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had also defended the hike in fuel prices and said that at a time when the government expenditure has surged due to welfare schemes along with vaccination coverage amid the pandemic, the government is saving money for such initiatives for the public.

Speaking to reporters, Pradhan said: "I accept that the current fuel prices are causing trouble to the consumers, there is no ambiguity over it. But whether it is the Centre of the state governments over Rs 35,000 crore is being spent on vaccination during a year.