Centre Utilising Petroleum Products As A Political Tool: BJD

Bhubaneswar: The BJD on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre for the steep hike in price of petroleum products.

Talking to media persons, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare minister Ranendra Pratap Swain said the Excise Duty on petroleum products in 2014 was Rs 3.50 which has now shot up to Rs 34. Apart from this, due to deregulation of fuel prices, money of people which should have gone to the state government went to the Centre. The Centre is has been utilising the money since 2014.

The minister also said apart from this, the Centre has now imposed cess on petroleum products on the pretext of COVID pandemic. As a result, the money that was in the divisive pool from which the states had some share will go to the central exchequer. “We can say that the leash is now in the hand of the Centre,” he pointed out.

Maintaining that the hike in petroleum products has a cascading effect on various sectors including agriculture, he said the Centre is utilising petroleum products as a political tool.

“Prior to the bypolls in West Bengal, the fuel price had remained constant for 20 days. But it again went up on the polling day,” Swain pointed out.

Justifying the hike in the petroleum products, BJP State General Secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre had announced free vaccination for which it had to invest around Rs 35,000 crore towards the procurement of vaccines. Apart from this, the Centre also invested a huge amount towards treatment of COVID patients under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. As a result, there was a heavy financial burden on the Centre, he added.