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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday slammed the government over ‘tax-gouging’ and ‘manipulation’ as fuel prices were hiked for the fifth time this week. The government has linked the hike in petrol and diesel prices to the Ukraine war, which started in February but the opposition has been claiming that the prices are now being increased as assembly elections in five states are over. “This was entirely predictable! Tax-gouging & price manipulation have been the hallmarks of this government’s contempt for the common citizen. Fuel prices must fall (sic),” Tharoor said. The price hike has been fuelling opposition attacks, quite literally, in the last few days. India saw the first price hike earlier this week after a gap of nearly four months. On Saturday, ex Congress chief Rahul Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that "the ‘king’ is busy building his palace while the people of the country are dying of inflation".
A three-phased campaign, 'Mehngai-mukt Bharat Abhiyaan', has been announced by the Congress against price rise under which it will organise rallies and marches across the country between March 31 and April 7.
Taking a dig at the continued rise in fuel prices after months-long hiatus, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday requested the Election Commission to announce the schedule of upcoming state elections immediately. "Such an announcement will move fuel prices from ‘deregulation to regulation mode’ and bring relief to Indians hit by soaring prices," she said. Apart from petrol and diesel, gas prices were also hiked this week. “Domestic gas cylinder prices have increased from ₹410 per cylinder in 2014 during Congress's UPA government to ₹949.50 in Delhi and ₹1,000 in most cities. In 8 years, the Modi government increased the price of domestic gas cylinder ₹539.50,” Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.
The petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 50 paise and 55 paise, respectively on Sunday. With this, the fuel is now costlier by ₹3.70-3.75 per litre within six days. The government is continuously facing heat from the opposition parties on price hikes.
Amid criticism, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that fuel prices are surging because of supply chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine war. She said oil marketing companies are procuring crude oil on a 15-day average rate, which is higher because of the Russia-Ukraine war. The “impact of that is on all the countries. Supply chains are disrupted, particularly of crude oil… when India is globally connected in the value chain…” she added. India is said to be largely dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs. Russia’s Ukraine invasion and escalating sanctions have hampered the oil flows across the globe. Brent crude, which hit an all-time high in the previous weeks, hovered around $116.83 per barrel on Saturday as per reports.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)