Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked the government over the rise in prices of petrol and diesel and accused the Centre of "tax extortion".
The former Congress president's attack came after petrol and diesel prices were hiked again by 35 paise per litre, sending retail pump prices to their highest-ever level across the country.
"There used to be stories of greedy misgovernance under which taxes were collected indiscriminately in old folk tales. At first, the people used to be unhappy but in the end the people used to end that misgovernance. In reality also, the same will happen," Mr. Gandhi tweeted in Hindi using the hashtags 'TaxExtortion' and 'FuelPrices'.
Along with his tweet, he also tagged a video collage on the rising prices of gas, diesel and petrol with his voiceover.
In the voiceover, Mr. Gandhi is heard saying that the government has earned ₹23 lakh crore from increasing prices of gas, diesel and petrol in the last seven years, and urges the people of the country to ask where this money is going.
The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of ₹104.79 a litre and ₹110.75 per litre in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
In Mumbai, diesel now comes for ₹101.40 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs ₹93.52.
