Only poor and middle-class will continue to pay, Chidambaram’s take on fuel price hike

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday criticised the government after it increased the prices of automobile fuels twice in two days.

State-run oil companies raised the prices of petrol and diesel by 60 paise per litre for the second consecutive day on Monday. They had hiked fuel prices by the same amount on Sunday as well.

“Fuel selling prices raised twice in two days, following tax hikes two weeks ago. This time to benefit oil companies,” Chidambaram tweeted.

“Government is poor, it needs more taxes. Oil companies are poor, they need better prices. Only the poor and middle class are not poor, so they will pay,” the former Union finance minister said.

Monday’s hike came after oil marketing companies resumed the dynamic pricing system for daily revision of fuel prices after a gap of more than 80 days.

Prices of transportation fuel were last revised under the dynamic pricing policy on March 16 and there were few instances of price hike only when the respective state governments hiked value-added tax (VAT) or cess.

Several state governments had raised taxes imposed on transportation fuels to increase revenues during the nationwide lockdown.

The Centre had raised the excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and on diesel by Rs 13 per litre on May 6 to recompense for revenue loss due to Covid-19 lockdown but it did not affect the retail sale price of the fuels.