The entire Opposition on Wednesday staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha over the Government not passing on the benefit of falling prices of petroleum products in the international market to the consumers and instead levying additional excise duty.
The Government, however, rejected this contention saying the NDA Government had reduced the price of petrol by `10 and diesel by `9 in the last six months. Moreover, the additional excise duty was levied recently to generate resources for funding social welfare schemes, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said.
Raising the issue, Tapan Sen (CPM) said even as international prices of crude oil had dropped, the Government did not pass on this benefit to the consumers. He claimed that the price of petrol should be at least `20 less and diesel `15 as per the current trend and said the so-called faulty pricing policy of the Government had led to the present situation.
Several Opposition members including Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi associated themselves with Sen and grilled the Government over this gap in prices. They contended that reduction in petrol and diesel prices domestically in the last six months was not commensurate with declining global crude oil prices.
Pradhan countered and said the Government has reduced petrol and diesel prices. The Opposition, however, said while reduction in crude oil prices was around 45 per cent, the cut in retail prices of fuel was only about 12 per cent in India but the Petroleum Minister did not agree with this argument. The House then saw some sharp exchanges between the treasury and Opposition benches.
Justifying the petroleum policy, Pradhan said retail prices were calculated using a transparent formula and the difference between the price paid to the refinery and final retail selling price was on account of a host of elements including excise duty, state taxes, subsidies and freight. He said the facts on oil prices presented by Opposition were misleading. However, the Opposition was not satisfied with the Minister’s answer and all parties including Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, left and JD(U) staged a walkout.