Centre profiteering off people’s misery and suffering: Sonia Gandhi on fuel price rise

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over “spiralling” fuel and gas prices, accusing his government of “profiteering” off “people's misery” and demanded a rollback of the increase in prices.

In a three-page letter, Gandhi also slammed the prime minister for blaming previous governments for the “economic mismanagement” of his own government.

“I hope you will agree that it is time for your government to focus on solutions instead of looking for excuses. India deserves better,” the Congress president said.

Petrol price on Saturday touched an all-time high of Rs 97 per litre in Mumbai while diesel rate crossed Rs 88-mark. It was the 12th straight day of price hike and the largest daily increase since oil companies started to revise rates on a daily basis in 2017.

Gandhi said that governments were elected to ease the burden of the people and at the very least, not do something that is contrary to their interests.

“Sadly, in these distressing times, the government has chosen to profiteer off people’s misery and suffering,” Gandhi said, noting that the Modi government has levied “excessive excise duties on petrol and diesel” which are higher than the base price of the fuel.

Read: Why petroleum prices may not come down anytime soon

“What baffles most citizens is that these prices have been increased despite moderate prices of international crude oil. To put it in context, the crude oil price is nearly half of what it was during the UPA government's tenure,” she said.

She said that domestic crude oil production had fallen to an 18-year low in 2020. She urged the prime minister to roll back the increase and pass on the benefits to the common man.

Read: Feeling petrol price pinch? Get your tank full in Nepal

“Your government has increased excise duty on diesel by 820% & on petrol by 258% over and collected upwards of Rs 21 lakh crore in the last six and a half years. This unaccounted-for windfall is yet to be passed to the people for whose benefit it was ostensibly collected,” she said.

She added it is “cruel” on part of the government to refuse to reduce the fuel prices when global crude oil prices had crashed to 20-dollars a barrel.