Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, May 11: The Lok Gathbandhan Party today said that shooting petrol and diesel prices, highest in recent years, have land the consumers in dire trouble and the possibility of further increase following US sanctions against Iran could not be ruled out.
The spokesman of the party blamed the NDA government on Friday for not properly managing oil prices which has put the people under massive burden. The spokesman said while domestic prices of petrol and diesel were facing upward trend, the decision of US President Donald Trump to pull out of nuclear agreement with Iran and announce sanctions against Teheran regime has created global upheaval in the oil market. The spokesman said immediately after the pull out Brent crude prices shot up to 2.5%.
However domestically Indian consumers have been facing wrath of oil prices for a long time more because of flawed policy of the NDA government. The spokesman further said sales tax rates being levied by both centre and state governments are quite high which have adversely impacted the overall prices in the market. Since petrol and diesel remain outside the ambit of goods and services tax (GST), the central and state governments are collecting sales tax separately, the spokesman said adding around 22% is going to centre and at least 27% to state governments and around 9% is pocketed by dealers and oil marketing firms. All these put together petrol and diesel have become costliest as compared to other countries.
The spokesman said with prevailing situation and possibility of India’s import bill, in view of Iran-US development, going up, people are in for more trouble but the NDA government is least concerned about it. The spokesman said pushing burden on poor people has become order of the day. The spokesman said higher inflation rates, depreciating value of rupee and widening current account deficit have become major issues and the possibility of account deficit touching alarming 3% cannot be ruled out. The spokesman said NDA government directionless approach in economic and financial planning has led to this scenario.
