Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Tuesday, April 8, slammed the Centre for increased LPG price and excise duty on fuel.
Taking a jibe at the NDA government’s ‘Achche Din’ slogan, KTR said, “While we await Achche Din, the NDA government delivered a single day hattrick!!” In a post on X, the Sircilla MLA took to X and said, “The Centre increased the price of LPG cylinders by Rs 50 and imposed an additional Rs 2 excise duty on fuel, despite historically low international oil rates.”
Petrol, diesel prices raised by Rs 2, unlikely to impact consumers
The former Telangana minister also criticised the Centre for losing Rs 19 lakh crore due to the Sensex crash. “Is this the remnant of the promised Acche Din or the beginning of Make India Great Again?” he asked.
LPG price hike
KTR’s criticism came a day after domestic cooking gas LPG price was hiked by a steep Rs 50 per cylinder across India and CNG by Rs 1 per kg, while the government raised taxes on petrol and diesel to shore up its revenues.
The increase in cooking gas price will be for the Ujjawala – poor beneficiaries who got LPG connection free of cost – and general users, and will be effective from April 8 and has been necessitated due to the rise in input cost, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Cooking gas for Ujjawala users will cost Rs 553 per 14.2-kg cylinder, up from the current Rs 503 in the national capital. The same for general users will now cost Rs 853. The rates, which vary from state to state depending on local incidence of taxes, were last revised in March last year when they were cut by Rs 100.
Also, CNG prices were hiked by Rs 1 per kg in the national capital and adjoining cities after the government last week raised input natural gas prices by almost 4 percent.
Excise duty on fuel increased
The Centre, on Monday, April 7, increased the excise duty by Rs 2 on petrol and diesel. The move comes amid US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and fluctuating global oil rates. As per the latest notification by the Union finance ministry, the said change will come into effect on April 8.
However, the changes will not impact consumers. According to the Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry, there will be no increase in the retail prices of petrol and diesel.
While any change in taxes is normally passed on to consumers, there will be no change in the retail selling price of petrol and diesel as the excise hike will be set off against the reduction in retail prices that was warranted from the fall in international oil prices.
International oil prices have slumped to their lowest since April 2021 as escalating trade tensions between the United States and China stoked fears of a recession that could cut oil demand.
Brent futures lost USD 2.43, or 3.7 per cent, to USD 63.15 a barrel on Monday while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down USD 2.42, or 3.9 per cent, at USD 59.57.
(With inputs from PTI)
