Opposition walkout over increased prices of petrol, diesel; Minister Puri targets opposition parties for not reducing VAT

Dissatisfied with the reply of Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on the increased prices of petrol and diesel in the country, opposition parties staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Responding to a question asked by Lok Sabha MP K. Muraleedharan during the Question Hour on Thursday, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said, "While the average price of Indian basket of Crude oil increased by 102% (from $43.34 to $87.55) between November 2020 and November 2022, the retail prices of Petrol and Diesel have increased in India by only 18.95 % and 26.5 % during this period."

"To insulate the Indian consumers from the impact of high international crude oil prices, Central Government reduced the Central Excise duty twice on 21 November 2021 and 22 May 2022, effecting a cumulative reduction of Rs. 13 and Rs. 16 per litre for petrol and diesel respectively, which was fully passed on to consumers. Following these reductions in Central Excise duty, some of the States/UTs also reduced Value Added Tax (VAT) rates on Petrol and Diesel," the Minister informed.

Puri said, BJP-ruled states as well as many other states also worked to provide relief to the public by reducing VAT rates, but the state governments of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala didn't reduce VAT to provide relief to the public.

On this reply of the Petroleum Minister, the opposition parties started creating ruckus and being dissatisfied with the reply of the Minister, Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, TRS, YSR Congress and Left MPs walked out of the Lok Sabha.

( With inputs from ANI )