Hitting out at the Congress led Punjab Government for its decision to levy additional cess of 10 paise per litre each on petrol and high speed diesel prices in urban areas in the state, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday described it as a shot of the sledgehammer for all categories of consumers in the state, including farmers.
The party demanded that the government should immediately review its lopsided and anti-people decision and order a roll back sooner than later, thus giving the much-desired respite to the people of the state.
“The people of the state are already paying more VAT or cess than what the people in other states of the country are paying...The proposed hike in petroleum products is set to burn a big hole in their pockets,” said AAP’s chief spokesperson and MLA Prof Baljinder Kaur and party’s state Trade Wing chief Neena Mittal, in a joint statement.
AAP leaders said that the people were subjected to a surfeit of problems due to anti-people policies of the Union and State Governments.
“Captain government, instead of levying additional cess on petroleum products, should have allowed exemption on additional hike, thus bailing out the people who are likely to be hit by the proposed hike,” they said adding that the people were already grappling with expensive power tariff issue and other tax liabilities.
Dubbing the decision of the government as dictatorial and anti-people decision, AAP leaders said that the proposed hike was set to burn a big hole in the pockets of a vast majority of consumers across the State.