Ashok Gehlot says Centre 'deceiving' people; 'Fuel prices stopped rising during UP polls'

After the Centre announced a major cut in excise duty on fuel, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, on Sunday, alleged a link between elections and prices of petrol and diesel in the country. Speaking to ANI, Ashok Gehlot claimed that fuel prices were continuously increasing in India, but as soon as the UP elections were announced, they stopped. When elections were over, prices started to rise again, the Congress CM alleged, adding that all of this was being done to 'deceive the people'.

"During the UPA government, excise duty was Rs 10, which they (BJP government) increased to Rs 32. States also used to have their share but now they have imposed additional excise duty and all the money goes into the Central government's account," claimed Gehlot. 

"Petrol-diesel prices were continuously increasing, but as soon as UP elections were announced, it stopped. When elections were over, prices started to rise again. They raised prices by around Rs 10/litre and reduced it by Rs 8-9. This is to deceive the common people," he added.

Centre slashes excise duty on diesel & petrol

In a big move to bring down the fuel rates in India, the Union Government slashed the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹6 per litre. Taking to Twitter, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the decision had been taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi specifically asked all arms of the government to work with sensitivity and give relief to the common man. 

"We are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹6 per litre. This will reduce the price of petrol by ₹9.5 per litre and of Diesel by ₹ 7 per litre. It will have revenue implication of around ₹1 lakh crore/year for the government," she said. 

The Centre has also exhorted all state governments, especially the states where the reduction wasn’t done during the last round,  (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man. Additionally, the government has announced that it will give a subsidy of ₹200 per gas cylinder (up to 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and has reduced customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for plastic products where import dependence is high.