As India rallies to battle against the hike in fuel and Petrol prices, Rajasthan minister Rajkumar Rinwa seems to have come up with a unique answer to combat the issue.
21 opposition parties led by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi observed a Bharat Bandh on Monday in protest against the price rise in petrol even as Indian currency (rupee) depreciates increasing the costs on imports.
But Rinwa just like many of his BJP contemporaries has used his genius mind to come up with a solution to the chaotic problem that has hit India. He says, quoted the ANI “There are so many expenses that the government is dealing with including floods and there is so much of consumption,” and hence the people should lower their respective expenses to help the government in combatting the hike in petrol price.
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No doubt, he is right. The government has to bear so many expenses. But what Mr. Rinwa must have forgotten is the expenses the government also incurs in building statues. Building a Lord Ram statue in Uttar Pradesh will cost the government approximately Rs 200 crore, while a Shivaji statue in Maharashtra may go above Rs 500 crore.
He also talks about floods and how much the government has to spend. But MLA Ranwa will do well to know that floods come once a year during the rainy season in India. The worst of them come once in 80 years (Kerala) and yet a member of the saffron party which is currently in power at the Centre laments about the expenditure incurred in the floods relief fund.
Ranwa further refused to blame the hike in petrol price on the government and instead reasoned that the “high Fuel prices in India are driven by the prices of crude oil in the world market.”
But what about the government-driven taxes that has also played a major role in the rising of Petrol prices?
A PTI report states that the retail sailing price of the two fuels is made up of central and state taxes. Petrol and diesel straight from the refinery costs around Rs. 40.50 and Rs 43 per litre respectively. But with the government slamming an excise duty of Rs 19.48 per litre of petrol and Rs. 15.33 on diesel, the prices are bound to rise high.
Moreover, it must also include the Value Added Tax (VAT) levied by the respective state governments on the fuel, which can go up to 39.12 percent (Mumbai) in petrol and 26% (Telangana) on diesel.
Alas! The genius mind of Mr. Ranwa certainly missed this. Only if he had worked his mind a little harder to gain knowledge of why the price of fuels in India is hitting mount high.
The excise duty on petrol in 2014 – when the BJP formed a central government – was Rs. 9.48 and it has gone as Rs 10 per liter at the present time. While it has certainly led to numerous problems in common households, it has also increased the government income on petrol excise duty. From earning Rs 99, 184 crores in 2014 the Centre now earns up to Rs 1, 84, 091 crores in 2017-17. But still for Mr. Ranwa, when the price of crude oil increases in the far-east, people “should lower expenses.”
While he might have failed to win over the support of the Indian citizens for his party, he certainly has managed to join an illustrious list of his imbecile co-party workers that have successfully proved themselves with shrewd comments.
The likes Subramanium Swamy, Surendra Singh, and Gayn dev Ahuja were already placed at the podium and Sir Rajkumar Ranwa will be highly honoured to reach there after resolving one of the country’s biggest issue.
It looks to be only a matter of time before the people heed his comments and start following his above commandments to eradicate the problem face by the hike in petrol price.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Sachin Pilot slammed the Rajasthan BJP MLA for his remarks and told ANI, “Such remarks from BJP leadership tell you they are very arrogant, they are insensitive to the needs of people. When people are suffering, they are making it worse by such outlandish statements.”
An India Bandh was observed on Monday as a protest against the price rise in fuel and the opposition parties have demanded that petrol and diesel should be brought under GST, which will help reduce the oil price by at least Rs 15-18.