Slamming the highest ever hike in petrol and diesel prices due to Centre’s “flawed” policies, Punjab Cabinet Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa on Tuesday called upon the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow his own advice that he used to give to his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh of bringing fuel prices under the GST.
Bajwa, who is the Rural Development and Panchayats and Housing and Urban Development Minister, demanded that petrol and diesel be brought under the Goods and Service Tax regime.
Alternatively, he said, excise duty and VAT should be cut to provide immediate relief to the people and the economy.
“Petrol and diesel prices in the country have touched a new high, rather highest till date. Why is Modi now maintaining silenceij He had, at one point, told the former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to take the hikes seriously. I wish that Modi should now implement his own advice given before 2014 to Dr Manmohan Singh,” he said.
Recalling Modi’s tweet on May 23, 2012, wherein he had said: “Massive hike in petrol prices is a prime example of the failure of Congress-led UPA government. This would put a burden of hundreds of crores on Gujarat”, Bajwa pointed out that the excise duty on petrol and diesel was hiked 12 times between May 2014 and September 2017 before it was cut by Rs two a litre in October last year.
“The excise duty on petrol increased by 54 percent and VAT by 46 percent during this period. In the case of diesel, the excise duty went up between May 2014 and September 2017 by 154 percent and VAT by 48 percent,” he added.
Bajwa said that the hike in these basic products, that has multiplier effect on the entire economy by way of price rise, had made life of the people miserable. Modi should have cared to calculate the impact on price level.
“Punjab is the worst affected as being agriculturally the most advanced state in the country, the consumption of diesel is very high. Farm machinery is run on diesel, thereby reducing the margin of profit, in case there is any,” he added.