Welcoming Centre's decision to reduce excise duty on petrol and diesel, Delhiites on Saturday asked the Modi Government to do more to reduce fuel prices to give relief from the increasing petrol and diesel prices amid high inflation on all commodities.
“This is a good move to give relief to aam admi from skyrocketing of petrol and diesel prices. But prices are still very high and common man can not afford this,” said Rajan Sharma, a resident of Kashmeri Gate. Sanjana Arora, a resident of Jal Vihar, said this has been a great relief, as earlier it was very difficult to maintain the budget of the family due to the increased fuel prices and cylinder prices. “With this step, a person will be able to maintain their basic living. The Government should further take actions to fight against the increasing inflation in the capital city,” she said.
According to Mohit Arya, an employee in a private company, petrol is one of the basic amenities for a person who is commuting from one city to another to earn living on a daily basis. “The prices of petrol and diesel in the past few months have risen briskly.
A person who is the sole earner in the family, and has a salary of Rs 20,000 cannot afford to travel by their own vehicle. The increased petrol prices have forced me to travel by metro to my office,” he said. Anup Verma, another resident of the Patel Nagar, said the State Government should also take such necessary steps to ease the pressure on the people living in Delhi.
Amid soaring fuel prices, the centre on Saturday announced an Rs 8 per liter cut in excise duty on petrol and Rs 6 a litre on diesel to avoid an increase in fuel prices that were necessitated due to surge in international oil prices. The Government also decided to give Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries for 12 cylinders in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam also took it to Twitter and wrote, “We are reducing the Central excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre. This will reduce price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre. It will have revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh crore or year for Government. I wish to exhort all state governments, especially states where reduction wasn’t done during last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to common man.”