Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday criticised the Centre for the increase in fuel prices as well as reiterated her call to revoke three contentious agriculture laws.

In a letter, the Congress president attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for its decision to hike the excise duties on fuel amid a collapsing economy due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the party is bent on making profits. “Today the price of crude oil is $50.96 [Rs 3,739.63] per barrel, meaning Rs 23.43 per litre,” she said. “Despite this, diesel is being sold at Rs 74.38 at petrol at Rs 84.20. This is the highest in the last 73 years.”

Gandhi accused the Centre of “breaking all records of profiteering”, saying that even though the fuel price is low in the international market, the government was not giving consumers its benefits. “In the last six and half years, the [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi government has increased the excise duty on fuels to recover about Rs 19,00,000 crore from the pockets of the common man.”


The Congress president also claimed that the BJP government has recklessly increased the price of Liquified Petroleum Gas, or LPG, cylinders, which has messed up the budget of individual households. She requested the Centre to bring down the excise duty on petrol and diesel to that that during the United Progressive Alliance regime and provide immediate relief to the affected people. “I also request the Centre to withdraw the three farm laws and agree to the demand of the farmers,” Gandhi said.

She said that the country was standing at the crossroads for the first time in its history. “On one hand, the country’s ‘annadata’ [farmers] are standing on the borders of Delhi for the last 44 days in support of their legitimate demands, while the country’s autocratic, insensitive and ruthless BJP government is busy breaking the back of the poor, farmers and middle class.”

Besides Sonia Gandhi, her son and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also criticised the government for the full hike. “There has been an unprecedented ‘growth’ in the prices of petrol and diesel,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted. “The Modi government is looting the public by imposing heavy tax on fuel price. This is why the government does not want to enact GST [Goods and Services Tax] on petrol-diesel.”

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also demanded that the Centre roll back the fuel price hike and help provide relief to the common man by reducing the excise duty.

He also pointed out that the price of petrol and diesel was the highest in 73 years. “The budget of the general public was disturbed, the burden increased on the peasant labor, food will be expensive and expensive, Is this the “good days” of the Modi government?” he wrote on Twitter. “Modi ji, stop looting the pockets of the countrymen, reduce the price of petrol-diesel.”

The price of petrol reached an all-time high in Delhi on Thursday with a hike of 23 paise per litre. The fuel was priced at Rs 84.20 per litre following the revision of price on Thursday morning. The price of diesel also rose by 26 paise, and stood at Rs 74.38 a litre in Delhi.