Stop hide-and-seek in fuel tax, Oppn tells Centre, TN

The meeting chaired by state Congress president Su Thirunavukkarasar dismissed the Centre’s attribution of skyrocketing fuel price to international crude price and said the price of petrol and diesel was Rs 71 and Rs 55 per litre when international crude price was USD 106 per barrel at the time the UPA demitted office, but petrol and diesel has been priced at Rs 84 and Rs 76 per litre when crude price was only USD 73 per barrel. 

Squarely blaming the Centre for the price variation, the Congress led all-party meeting said the UPA regime had increased subsidy to ease the burden of rising fuel price on the people, whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime has fully withdrawn the subsidies. Claiming that excise duty on petrol and diesel had been increased by 211 per cent and 443 per cent during the Modi regime, the opposition parties said there could not be a worse anti-people activity than this.

Urging the Centre and state governments, which have been advising each other to reduce tax to keep a tab on fuel price rise, to stop playing hide and seek, the Opposition also urged the Centre to wrest control of fuel pricing from oil companies and bring petroleum products under the GST bracket. Leaders of DMK, DK, CPM, CPI, IUML, MDMK and VCK were among those who attended the all-party meeting called by the Congress to make September 10 national bandh a grand success.