A day after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by a steep ₹3 per litre each, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet, said that instead of passing on the benefit of the global oil price crash, “our genius” had hiked excise duty.
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The government seeks to collect an additional revenue of ₹39,000 crore with the move.
“Just 3 days ago I had requested @PMOIndia to pass on the benefit of the global oil price crash to Indian consumers, by slashing the prices of petrol and diesel in India. Instead of heeding this advice, our genius has gone and hiked #exciseduty on fuel!” Mr. Gandhi tweeted.
He also tagged the video of a press conference in which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is seen smiling and avoiding a question on why the government is not willing to slash fuel prices in keeping with global trends.
The former Congress president on Wednesday had accused Mr. Modi of being too busy “destabilising an elected government” to notice a crash in global oil prices this week.
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“Hey @PMOIndia, while you were busy destabilising an elected Congress Govt, you may have missed noticing the 35 per cent crash in global oil prices. Could you please pass on the benefit to Indians by slashing #petrol prices to under 60? per litre? Will help boost the stalled economy,” Mr. Gandhi had said.
