New Delhi: The federal government is “delicate” in direction of the costs of petroleum merchandise and is taking all doable steps to handle the problem, Union Petroleum and Pure Fuel Minister Hardeep Singh Puri mentioned on Wednesday and blamed the Congress for the development of hike in petrol and diesel costs. If state governments need they’ll decrease the costs of petrol and diesel, as a state did so just lately, he mentioned in a press convention on the Delhi BJP workplace.
“We’re delicate in direction of it and are taking doable steps like doing mixing of 10 per cent which we’re going to elevate to twenty per cent. So, we’re taking many steps,” Puri mentioned when requested concerning the rising costs of petroleum merchandise together with cooking gasoline.
The Congress authorities in 2010 deregulated costs of petrol and diesel, that means there could be an area affect of worldwide charges, he mentioned.
“The Centre imposes excise tax on petrol and diesel, whereas states impose VAT on it. We use this excise cash to fund schemes like PM Garib Kalyan Yojna underneath which 80 crore folks obtained free foodgrains, PM Awas Yojna, Ujjwala scheme,” he mentioned.
Puri mentioned that the Congress authorities, earlier than 2014, issued oil bonds of INR 1.34 lakh crore to manage costs of petrol and “handed on their downside to us. They emptied the chest. Now we have to pay INR 20,000 crore this yr for the oil bonds which have a maturity interval of 15 years.”
The minister additionally hit on the Congress saying the figures on oil bonds introduced by it had been “flawed” and challenged the get together to ask states dominated by it to scale back VAT on petrol and diesel.
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The earlier Congress-led UPA authorities had issued bonds to state-owned oil firms to make up for the distinction within the artificially suppressed retail promoting value of gasoline and the price. These oil bonds and the curiosity thereon are being paid now.
“The federal government is observing the info related to gross sales of petrol and diesel within the final 30 days. We’re observing how the discount of the petrol value is reflecting every day within the state. The end result of the info will outline future measures,” mentioned the minister.
