Kejriwal demands further reduction in fuel prices; gets mocked

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal demanded a Rs 10 per litre cut in fuel prices, hours after the Centre announced a reduction of Rs 2.5 per litre in prices of petrol and diesel on Thursday.

The Delhi chief minister said the Modi government raised excise duty on petrol from Rs 9.48 to Rs 19.48, leading to a steep rise in its price despite a sharp decline in international prices of crude oil.

"Modi government raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 and today reduced only Rs 2.50. This is cheating. The centre should bring down petrol prices at least by Rs 10," he said in a tweet.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari mocked the chief minister, saying his comment meant he wanted to help Delhi by reducing petrol prices by Rs 10 a litre.

"It means @ArvindKejriwal Ji wish to help Delhi by reducing Rs.10 per litre on petrol and diesel, nice gesture!! Thanks kejriwal Ji," Tiwari tweeted.

The Central government announced a Rs 2.50 a mitre cut in petrol and diesel prices, factoring in excise duty reduction of Rs 1.50 per litre and asking oil companies to absorb another Re 1.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked state governments to follow suit by cutting sales tax or VAT by a similar amount. The reduction followed petrol and diesel prices touching new highs.

Tiwari demanded the Delhi government cut VAT on petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 per litre so that the people of Delhi may also get relief of Rs 5 per litre on the fuels as was done by governments in BJP-ruled states.

BJP's leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the Delhi government owed "much more" to Delhiites and demanded it reduces the petrol price by Rs 10.50 and diesel price by Rs 7.92 per litre.

"Union Finance Minister asking state Governments to reduce the price by Rs 2.50 is not applicable to Delhi. Kejriwal government is pocketing arbitrarily increased 12 per cent VAT on petrol and 10.5 per cent VAT on diesel," Gupta charged.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj charged that the Centre is "fooling" people.

"For four years, the prices of petrol and diesel were increased and now the Centre is fooling people by decreasing it by Rs 2.50 per litre," he said.

This is an attempt of providing "fake relief" to the people in view of "dipping popularity" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and coming assembly elections in three states, Bhardwaj alleged.