High fuel tax is extortion to cover up economic mismanagement, Sonia Gandhi writes to PM

The government's action of imposing higher fuel tax "is nothing short of extortion to cover up economic mismanagement", Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, demanding that prices of petrol and diesel be brought down through a partial rollback of fuel taxes.

Gandhi also questioned Modi’s rationale of blaming the previous UPA regime's policies for rising fuel prices and pointed out how the Congress-led regime had averted the same despite the then high global crude oil rates.

She said the NDA regime’s steep fuel taxes alone were responsible for the current situation and demanded that the PM offer a "solution" and not an "excuse".

“Your Government has been unreasonably over-zealous in levying excessive excise duty on Petrol and Diesel, i.e., Rs 33 on every litre of Petrol and Rs 32 on every litre of Diesel, which is higher than the base price of these fuels. This is nothing short of extortion to cover up economic mismanagement,” Gandhi said, questioning the government’s decision to increase excise duty on diesel by 820% and on petrol by 258% and collecting more than Rs 21 lakh crore in the last six and a half years.

“As the principal party in opposition, I urge upon you to follow ‘Raj Dharma’ and reduce fuel prices by partially rolling back excise duty," she said.

Gandhi also pointed out that despite being in power for almost seven years, “your government continues to blame previous regimes for its own economic mismanagement...The governments are elected to ease the burden of our people and at the very least, not work directly contrary to their interests.”