P Chidambaram terms heavy tax on fuel as Centre’s ‘greed’

Comparing petrol and diesel prices of the previous UPA and incumbent BJP government in tune with the rise in international crude price, Chidambaram, while participating in a private function here, said the BJP regime was treating fuel price as milch cow. 

Arguing that taxes should be imposed on other goods too, the Congress senior said, “Today, the Union government has imposed 33 per cent central tax on petrol and 32 per cent on diesel. Imposing 33 per cent on one commodity is a very flawed economic policy. It is not an imposition of tax, but it amounts to squeezing it.” 

Stating that the BJP regime considers fuel as a major source of revenue and optimized its revenue from it, the Harvard educated economist said, “Petrol and diesel should not be considered as milch cows. This government does. Previous governments did not do so. 

This year alone, the Union government has mopped up Rs 4.5 lakh crore as revenue through tax on petrol and diesel. The main reason for the sharp rise in petrol and diesel prices is the greed of the incumbent Union government.” 

Ripping off the ‘V’ shaped recovery claim of the Centre, Chidambaram, loaded with statistics pertaining to the fall in the country’s economic growth during the last 12 quarters, said the country’s economy was in a state of lull. 

Only agriculture and fisheries sectors have returned to the pre-COVID growth state and the rest of the sectors remain paralyzed.

Chidambaram, who also criticised the Union government for failing to retain Raghuram Rajan and Aravind Subramaniam among the domain experts, said the GST council has become a powerless organisation and the views of states are not being accepted in the council.