Sonia Gandhi urges PM to rollback fuel price hike

Terming the continuous hike in prices of petrol and diesel during the COVID crisis as 'insensitive', Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rollback the recent increases in fuel price and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of the country.

In a letter to the PM, Ms Gandhi also accused the NDA government of having failed to pass on benefits of plummeting of international crude oil price in the last six years to the public.

'I am deeply distressed that in these exceedingly difficult times since the beginning of March, the Government has taken the wholly insensitive decision to increase petrol and diesel prices on no less than ten separate occasions. Your Government is seeking to earn an additional revenue of nearly Rs. 2,60,000 crores by these ill-advised hikes in excise duty and increases in the petrol of diesel.

As it is, people across the board are facing unimaginable hardships what to say of widespread fear and insecurity. These price increases are saddling our people with an additional burden of this enormous magnitude that is neither justified nor appropriate. I urge you to rollback these increases and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of this country. If you wish for them to be ‘self-reliant’ then do not place financial fetters on their ability to move forward,'Ms Gandhi said.