Punjab CM asks SAD chief to persuade Centre to roll back fuel price hike

An increase in VAT by Punjab cannot be compared with the huge burden imposed by the Centre by hiking fuel prices. “What we have earned in revenue through that single VAT hike is peanuts compared to the revenue garnered by the Centre with these fuel prices hikes in June,” he said, asking Badal to first persuade the Union government to roll back those hikes, which had benefited no one but the Centre.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday asked SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to persuade the Centre to roll back the "shocking" increase in fuel prices instead of protesting against the hike in VAT on them by the state government. He also asked him to stop "parroting" his "political masters" BJP's line on fuel prices hike since 'Unlock 1' and dared him to quit the ruling coalition at the Centre if it does not heed to him. "What makes these hikes even more abominable is the fact they have come even as the crude prices internationally are showing a remarkable downward trend," he said.

The chief minister attacked Shiromani Akali Dal a day after the party held a state-wide protest against a hike in VAT on fuels and the alleged liquor and mining scams in the state. He also slammed Akalis for throwing social distancing norms to the winds during the protest.

The chief minister claimed that the NDA government, with SAD being its ally, had increased taxes on diesel by 900 per cent and on petrol by 700 per cent since 2016. Prices of petrol and diesel in India are now the highest in the world, he said.

While all other central taxes have a 42 per cent state share, the taxes on petroleum products have been increased by way of cess and not excise, thus depriving the states of their share and the entire revenue of over Rs 2 lakh crore earned in 22 days of hike in June 2020, going into the Centre's kitty, the CM said in an official release here. Singh termed as "sheer nonsense" Badal's assertion that his party will persuade the Centre to reduce fuel prices once the Punjab government reduces VAT on them.

The state government has announced a single hike in VAT for fuel, which came after a series of daily raises on fuel prices by the Centre, he asserted. An increase in VAT by Punjab cannot be compared with the huge burden imposed by the Centre by hiking fuel prices.

"What we have earned in revenue through that single VAT hike is peanuts compared to the revenue garnered by the Centre with these fuel prices hikes in June," he said, asking Badal to first persuade the Union government to roll back those hikes, which had benefited no one but the Centre. Any self-respecting political party, which truly cares for people, would have walked out of the central government a long time ago, but with their "shameless greed for power", neither Sukhbir Badal nor Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal would think of doing that, Singh said.