Amarinder slams govt for diesel price hike

Monday, 06/10/2014

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=116216&boxid=58658&uid=&dat=2014-10-06

Amritsar : Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Sundya lashed out at the SAD-BJP government in Punjab for increasing the tax on diesel prices, saying it will put an additional burden on farmers who were in need of relief in the wake of ‘scanty’ rains.

On October 1, the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department increased VAT rate on diesel (other than premium diesel) by 1 per cent. After the hike in VAT, the retail price of diesel jumped by 55 paise a litre to Rs 58.11 per litre.

“Now, after the hike, farmers’ input costs will further increase which will mean additional burden,” Amarinder said. The Amritsar MP said that diesel prices should have been reduced by the NDA government at the Centre as crude oil prices in the international market have come down.

“While the NDA is shying away from slashing the prices at the Centre, Akalis have slapped a hike in Punjab,” he noted.

The former Punjab chief minister expressed surprise as to why the Centre was not passing on the benefit to consumers in the country.

“When you pass on the burden of hike to consumers, you must pass on the benefit of reduced prices to them as well,” he argued.

Farmers should have got relief due to poor monsoons coupled with ‘no electricity’ which have forced them to use generators to irrigate their fields, he said.

Amarinder said transportation costs will increase, thus burdening the common man with rising prices, and demanded immediate reversal of the hike.

Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa flayed SAD for defending the decision to hike VAT on diesel by one per cent on the plea of mobilising funds for development, and said this had conclusively proved that his government had been ‘ditched’ by the NDA government at the Centre. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday supported the Punjab government’s move to increase VAT on diesel, cold drinks and cigarettes, saying tax was raised to mobilise funds for development.

“All along, you have been misleading the people by alleging discrimination at the hands of the UPA government, but now the Narendra Modi government has refused to come to your rescue,” Bajwa said in a release.

“The UPA government in general and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in particular never treated you so shabbily. He (Singh) used to go to great lengths to help your government whenever you (Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal) approached him with a bouquet of flowers,” he added.

Bajwa also accused Badal of changing alliance partners frequently.