The Congress today held a series of demonstrations to protest against the increase in petrol and diesel prices in the country.
CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, TPCC head N Uttam Kumar Reddy, MP A Revanth Reddy and MLA T Jagga Reddy were among those leaders who took part in the various protest programs held across Telangana.
Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was participating in a demonstration held at a petrol pump near the Secretariat, demanded that the Centre and the state government reduce the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG to ease the existing fiscal burden on the common people of the state and the country.
He lamented the fate of the poor and middle-class people, and claimed that they were utterly distressed by the apathy of the KCR and the Modi governments.
"Both the Modi and the KCR governments have made life miserable for the common people. The price of petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre in several places in our country. Petrol prices have risen by Rs 25 and diesel prices by Rs 23.90 in just one year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earned the dubious distinction of raising the prices of petrol and diesel 43 times in one year. The TRS government at the state level has also cast additional burdens on the people by raising the VAT. Under the rule of the BJP and the TRS, Telangana's citizens are today paying more tax on petrol than its actual cost. About 60% of petrol and 53% of diesel prices comprise central (excise) and state (VAT) taxes. Even the retail price of LPG refill has doubled. Refill prices have risen from around Rs 410 in 2014 to around Rs 850 today," Reddy thundered.
"Though crude oil prices are low in the international market, prices of diesel and petrol are, in proportion, much higher in India. The price of crude oil fell drastically in the last seven years, between 2014 and 2021. However, this benefit was not passed on to consumers as the union and state governments kept on increasing the taxes and burdened the consumers. Crude oil prices have come down to $60.47 per barrel in 2019-20 from $105 per barrel in 2013-2014. Instead of enabling the people to benefit from this massive drop in prices, the Centre and the TRS government have been looting them," he alleged.
Further, the TPCC chief pointed out that during the rule of the Congress-led UPA government, the total tax collected on petrol and diesel in 2013 was Rs 52,537 crore, but in 2014, the Modi government had collected more than Rs 72,000 crore in the form of taxes on fuel. He claimed that excise collections had crossed Rs 3 lakh crore in 2020 alone.
"In its first four years - from 2014 to 2018 - the Modi government collected about Rs 11 lakh crore in the form of taxes on petrol and diesel. This was possible since the Modi government has steeply increased excise duties on fuel. In April 2014, when UPA-II left office, the excise duty on a litre of petrol was Rs 9.48 while on a litre of diesel it was Rs 3.56. Excise duty has now increased by over 2.5 times on petrol and almost 8 times on diesel," he charged.
Criticising the TRS government in the state as being "equally responsible" for the rise in fuel prices, the leader said that in 2014, before the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the then-Congress government had levied a VAT of 31% on petrol and 22.25% on diesel, but that after the TRS government came to power, it had increased the VAT in 2015.
"Currently, the Telangana government has been collecting a VAT of 35.2% on petrol and 27% on diesel. Telangana's VAT on petrol is the third highest in the country, after Rajasthan and Manipur. The VAT on diesel is the second-highest, after Odisha," he stated.
The protestors then mocked the Modi and KCR regimes as being regimes that had "flowers in their ears", and raised slogans against both governments.
AICC official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, former PCC head Ponnala Laxmaiah, former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav and PCC leader B Kishan also participated in the protest.
At another program, Revanth Reddy said, "The excise duty imposed on petrol, diesel and LPG was much lower under the rule of the Congress-led UPA. However, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rule, an excise duty of Rs 3.34 lakh crore has been imposed on fuel. Further, even though the price of crude oil was $107 during the rule of the UPA, diesel was sold for just Rs 54 per litre in the country. The Congress-led Centre had worked hard to keep petrol and diesel prices within the reach of the common people. This is evidently no longer the case."
He accused the Modi government of being unaware of the problems of the common people of the country and asked the leaders of the BJP-led Centre why they were not including fuel prices under the GST regime when this inclusion would reduce the taxes being imposed on them to just 28%.
Reddy claimed that if the Centre did this, the price of petrol would come down to "just Rs 75 per litre". He said that the Congress would "corner" the Centre on the issue of the unprecedented rise in fuel prices during the upcoming session of Parliament.
Meanwhile, at the protest program held in Jogulamba Gadwal district, AICC state in-charge S A Sampath Kumar also lashed out at the Centre.
Kumar pointed out that fuel prices had been soaring for the past 14 months while the income of the people of the country had been dwindling due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. He claimed that the prices of fuel had been "under control" in the country during the rule of the UPA "despite the high rates of crude oil in the international market".
The leader demanded that the BJP-led Centre immediately reduce the prices of fuel.
The protests in the state were organised after the AICC issued a call to all the state-level units of the party to stage demonstrations against the fuel price hike. Congress leaders in other regions, including Delhi, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, also organised similar protests today.
The party has been quite vocal about its dissatisfaction with the Modi regime's alleged lack of success in controlling fuel prices in India - some months ago, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had even launched a
213 km bicycle rally to protest the price rise.