Covid-19: Sonia Gandhi demands rollback of fuel price increase, says Centre profiting off own people

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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday demanded a rollback of the rise in fuel prices, saying the central government’s decision to introduce successive increases over the past week amidst a pandemic is “wholly insensitive” and “ill-advised”.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said that given that the international price of crude oil has fallen by approximately 9% over the same period, the Centre is doing “nothing short of profiteering off its people”.

The prices of petrol and diesel were increased for the tenth consecutive day on Tuesday as state-owned oil companies returned to the normal practice of daily reviews following a 12-week pause due to the lockdown enforced to contain the coronavirus. While the price of petrol was revised to Rs 76.73 per litre in the national Capital from Rs 76.26 per litre on Monday, the diesel rate was increased to Rs 75.19 per litre from Rs 74.62 per litre.

“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,” Gandhi said. “I see no logic in why the government would even consider such a price increase at a…

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