'People first for us': PM Modi after finance minister slashes fuel prices, offers LPG subsidies

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister said today's decisions will further improve citizens' 'Ease of Living.'

Reacting to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcements, particularly those on petrol and diesel, as well as subsidy on gas cylinders, prime minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the decisions showed that for his government, 'it is always the people first.'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI Photo)(HT_PRINT)

“Today's decisions, especially the the one relating to a significant drop in petrol and diesel prices will positively impact various sectors, provide relief to our citizens and further ‘Ease of Living’,” PM Modi wrote on Twitter, shortly after Sitharaman's announcement.

Sitharaman announced that the excise duty of petrol and diesel was being slashed by ₹8 per litre and ₹6 per litre respectively. After this, petrol will become cheaper by ₹9.5 per litre and the cost of diesel will go down by ₹7 per litre, the finance minister informed.

“It will have revenue implication of around ₹1 lakh crore/year for the government,” she added.

Meanwhile, on subsidy for gas cylinder, the prime minister said the government's Ujjwala Yojana has helped ‘crores of Indians,’ especially women. He added that the subsidy decision will ‘greatly ease’ family budgets.

 

According to finance minister, the government, this year, will give subsidy of ₹200 per gas cylinder (up to 12 cylinders) to more than 90 million people who benefitted from the Ujjwala Yojana. “This will help our mothers and sisters and have a revenue implication of around ₹6100 crore a year,” she tweeted.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched by PM Modi on May 1, 2016, to distribute a total of 50 million LPG connections to women from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.