Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has slammed the Union government for its liberalisation policies, which, he said, have led to uncontrolled rise in fuel prices, leaving consumer States like Kerala to grapple with a general price rise too.
In a statement here, he said that the government's withdrawal from all social sectors in the aftermath of globalisation, the policy of giving a free hand to oil companies to decide fuel prices and allowing private petroleum companies into the sector have set in motion a process which is spiralling into a crisis.
Price never falls
When price control norms were removed, one of the arguments raised in its favour was that when oil prices decrease in the international market, domestic prices will also benefit from a proportional decrease. But the BJP’s policy of hiking excise duty when international oil prices come down has ensured that domestic fuel prices never go down, Mr. Vijayan said.
In the past seven years, the BJP introduced more levies in the oil sector, like cess and special additional excise duty, and because of these even when crude oil prices fall, petrol and diesel prices do not decrease in the country. These are Central taxes of which States get no share, he added.
The termination of the oil pool account, which used to even out fluctuations in fuel prices, added to the crisis. The government’s policy of allowing corporates to run even projects by the ONGC is all set to aggravate the situation in future, he said.
In the month of March alone, petrol price was hiked by ₹7.01 and diesel by ₹5.76. Before the policies of globalisation kicked in, petrol had been priced at ₹9.8 and diesel at ₹4.8. The prices of both have now crossed ₹100. The price of subsidised LPG cylinder has now crossed ₹1,000. The price of commercial LPG cylinder was hiked by ₹256 in a single day last week, taking it to ₹2,250.
Mr. Vijayan dismissed claims that the UDF government had reduced fuel taxes. The excise duty was hiked 13 times when concession was given just thrice, he said.
‘No duty hike by State’
Defending the State government’s policy of not slashing or giving up the excise duty imposed by the State, he claimed that after the Left government came to power in the State in 2016, the excise duty on petrol and diesel has never been hiked, because of which the people of the State have benefitted by over ₹1,500 crore.
Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many States like UP, Goa, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka hiked fuel cess, Kerala was one of the few States which did not do it. The Congress, which demands that the State government reduce the excise duty on fuel, should take a look at the fuel prices in States where they are ruling, he said.
Concessions for the rich
Mr. Vijayan said that the BJP government was making tax concessions for the ultra rich and then putting all the tax burden on the shoulders of the common man. This is evident from the fact that in the previous financial year alone, corporate taxes to the tune of ₹1.45 lakh crore was waived, he said.
It is the same Union government which claims that it does not have the revenue to offer food or oil subsidy for the common man, is offering tax concessions to the rich and elite corporates.
It is a double whammy that the BJP government is dishing out to the common man, by cutting subsidies and piling on additional taxes. The spiralling fuel prices are just one fallout of this policy of pampering the rich, Mr. Vijayan said in his statement.
