New Delhi, The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday demand the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to reduce the petrol price to Rs 39 per litre and diesel to Rs 31 per litre, as there is a 55 per cent decrease in crude oil price in global market.
Speaking to the media, party MLA and spokesperson Raghav Chadha said by increasing the fuel prices despite record drop in global crude oil prices, the BJP government at the Centre is working against the interests of people.
“The Centre should give the complete benefit of the decreased price of crude oil in the global market to the people. Considering the rate of crude oil in the global market, the BJP government should give the petrol in Rs 39.76/liter and diesel in Rs 31.58/liter,” he said.
“Today we are at a time when in our economy, the price of aviation fuel is cheaper than that of the per litre price of petrol and diesel. Today, in Delhi, the price of petrol is Rs 69.87/lit, price of diesel is Rs 62.50/lit and the price of aviation fuel is Rs 56/litre. So today it is cheaper to fly an aeroplane than driving a car,” Chadha said.
Chadha said in the past few years the BJP-led government has increased the excise rate nearly 12 times, therefore, the petrol and diesel price have increased exponentially.
“Today, in the global market the price of crude oil has become the lowest in the last 15 years but under the Modi government the crude oil price in India has only increased. Today also the Modi government has increased the petrol and diesel price by increasing Rs 3/lit the excise duty,” said Chadha.
He said if we compare the crude oil price in the global market when Modi came to power and today then we will see that there is a decrease of 55 per cent crude oil price in the global market.
He slammed the BJP for not passing on the benefit of the global decrease in the crude oil price.
Today we are buying the crude oil in India in the rate of global crude oil price as of November 2004. Under the BJP regime, the Central government has increased the excise rate nearly 12 times in the last 6 years and this way they have earned an amount of Rs 16 lakh crore, the AAP leader said.
“The Central government should maintain the crude oil price of India with respect to the crude price in the global market. In May 2014 when the BJP government came to power then the excise duty on diesel was Rs 3.56/litre and today the excise duty on diesel has increased to Rs 18.80/litre. Similarly, in May 2014 the excise duty on petrol was Rs 9.40/lit and today it has increased to Rs 22.90/lit,” said Chadha.
