Former Petroleum Minister and BJP’s national convener of good governance cell Ram Naik on Thursday charged that the common man was finding it extremely difficult to survive under the UPA regime, with the prices of essential commodities having shot by 200 per cent during the last nine years.
Releasing a comparative statistics of increase in the prices of 21 essential commodities during the last nine years, Naik said at a news conference here, “Prices of wheat, rice, besan, moog dal, masoor dal, jagery, tea, etc have increased by more than 200 per cent during the last nine years. It is indeed difficult for aam admi to live on traditional bread and onion as the prices of onions have increased by 233 per cent — from Rs 6 per kg to Rs 20”.
Naik said that the petrol and diesel prices had shot up by 118 per cent and 157 per cent per litre, respectively, kerosene price had gone up by 178 per cent during the last nine years.
“The diesel price has gone up from Rs 22.50 per litre to Rs 57.88 per litre, while the petrol price increased from Rs 33.15 per litre to Rs 72.21 per litre during the period. Similarly, the common man’s fuel — kerosene — has shot up from Rs 18 to Rs 50,” the veteran BJP leader said.
“Similarly, the price of domestic gas cylinder with subsidy has gone up from Rs 244 to Rs 448 (84% increase) and that of non-subsidised cylinder at Rs 858 (252 per cent increase),” Naik said.
Charging that the rampant corruption in the Congress regime had contributed to production loss on all fronts, Naik said the fall in GDP to a low 5 per cent during 2012-13 was a case in point. “This lowest figure in the last 10 years is a warning bell for the country’s economy,” he said.
Stating the dollar-rupee exchange rate of Rs 45.10 during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime had now declined to Rs 56.76, Naik said, “This has adversely affected the prices of daily essential commodities. This decline is the lowest in the last 11 months. Since our imports are more than exports, the decline in rupee is hitting hard to the economy. We are forced to pay 26 per cent more price for imports”.
Naik said that the BJP’s national executive, at its meeting to be held in Goa on June 8 and 9, would finalise its strategy to fight the hither-to unchecked inflation.