Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to save the people from the “cruel” burden of rising petrol prices.
Reminding the Prime Minister that the “cruel” rise in petroleum prices have adversely affected the people’s lives at a time when rate of inflation was already high the Chief Minister wrote, “I have come to learn that petrol and diesel prices were hiked by your government 8 times since the 4th of May, 2021 and out of these, prices were hiked 6 times in the month of June, 2021 only and shockingly, 4 times in one week. These rather cruel hikes in petrol and diesel prices have affected the common people most adversely and have directly impacted the dangerously rising inflation in the country.”
Saying how the price of petrol had hit a century in many parts of the country, she wrote, “Shockingly, the retail price of petrol in many states across the country has crossed an unprecedented `100 per litre.”
Drawing a comparison between her Government and that being run by the BJP, Banerjee wrote how her own Bengal had offered a “voluntarily rebate to both petrol and diesel as a token of our empathy for the common people,” demanded an immediate reduction in the prices of petroleum products.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has decided to hit the streets of Bengal in the coming days. “The TMC will organise protest movements following all the pandemic norms on July 10 and 11 in all the blocks of the State,” senior party leader Partho Chatterjee said.
Banerjee wrote how the , “In the midst of this Covid pandemic, the Government of India has collected revenue of staggering `3.71 lakh crore (`3,71.725 crore) from oil and petroleum products in the financial year 2020-21. In fact, over the last six years of your Government, the Government of India's tax collection from oil and petroleum products has jumped by a staggering 370% since 2014-15, due to constant hikes in Central Excise Duty on oil and petroleum products including cesses and surcharges, at the cost of the common people.”
Linking the petro-price hike and consumer price index the Chief Minister wrote, “Consumer Price Index rose by 6.30% where the prices of edible oils used by common people every day, rose by 30.8%, eggs by 15.2%, fruits by 12% and health-related items, in the middle of the pandemic, by as much as 8.44%. Much of this inflation was triggered by the petrol and diesel price hikes… I may add here, that such major inflation in prices reduces the real income of the common people as well.”