VIJAYAWADA: The fight over fuel prices between the ruling YSR Congress and the Opposition parties continues in Andhra Pradesh, with the Telugu Desam sharpening its knives against the ruling YSRC, and the BJP, too, training its guns on the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
The BJP opposed what it termed the “adamant” attitude of the YSRC government towards slashing of prices afer the Centre reduced the cess and staged protests. The Telugu Desam held protests on Tuesday but the YSRC demanded that the Opposition parties go to Delhi and hold the agitation there for cut in petrol and diesel prices.
It was two days ago that the YSRC government first issued advertisements in newspapers on the petrol and diesel prices. Further, ministers and YSRC leaders started attacking the BJP and holding the Central government responsible for the fuel price hike.
On the other hand, the TD, the BJP, the Communists and other political parties were mounting pressure on the YSRC government to decrease VAT and staging protests.
Interestingly, the BJP recalled the imposing of a Rs 4 cess per litre of petrol and diesel by the previous TD government and demanded that chief minister Jagan cancel it, as “it was imposed for raising the Amaravati capital construction funds, which was halted, and hence the collection of the cess must stop.”
YSRC leaders noted that the price of crude oil continuously decreased from the year 2014 to 2021, but the Modi government kept increasing petrol and diesel prices and “robbed” money from the public. YSRC leaders increased the counterattack on BJP and the TD by saying these two parties should, if they were serious enough, go to Delhi and raise their protest. “It is the central government that fixes the fuel prices, so fight there, and not against the state government,” the YSRC reasoned.
YSRC’s social media activists, supporters and sympathisers stepped up their campaigns on the social media platforms, accusing the BJP government of being responsible for the increase in petrol price to Rs 110.15 per litre from Rs 70. The social media platforms are flooded with the posts of YSRC, BJP and TD supporters, in a virtual war over fuel price hike.
Political analysts say the YSRC lent a helping hand to the BJP government on many issues in the Parliament but the BJP did not reciprocate in a matching manner to the YSRC including on the issue of disqualifying rebel MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju.
They stated that Telangana is also up-in-arms against the BJP government on fuel price hike and the YSRC making good use of the situation by scolding both the BJP and the TD to gain political mileage.
Ministers Perni Venkataramaiah and K Venkateswara Rao said the state BJP leaders must push the Centre to slash the fuel prices by another Rs 20-25 per litre. They alleged that the BJP-ruled states are getting funds from the Centre in different ways and hence they slashed fuel prices after the central cut was announced. AP does not have such funds flow from the Centre and hence we cannot do the same,” they reasoned.
They recalled that Chandrababu Naidu had staged protests in Delhi against the Modi government in the past and he must do this now too and stop blaming the YSRC government.
The two ministers said the state government had not increased the VAT of Rs 4 after it took charge in 2019, but levied only Rs 1 as cess for repairing the 8,970-km of roads at a cost of Rs 2,205 crore. “In fact, it is the Centre that levies excise duty, the road and infrastructure cess and the agriculture infrastructure and development cess on both petrol and diesel. The Centre collected almost Rs 2,87,500 crore through various cesses per annum in addition to Rs 47,000 crore in excise duty.”
“On road infrastructure alone, the Centre collects Rs 1,98,000 crore each year,” they said, and slammed the BJP leaders for raising the state government’s road cess collection as an issue. They clarified that 14 states have not reduced the fuel prices and it was not AP alone that is refusing to do this.
