BJP demands rollback of petrol price hike

The Bhartiya Janata Party on Sunday asked the government to unveil a concrete action plan to curb inflation effectively in a month and demanded an immediate rollback in the hike of fuel prices.

BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told mediapersons that the government's claim that the petrol price hike was necessary since the oil companies are suffering under recoveries is bogus. He said the double dose of price hike in one month is "totally unjustified" and is nothing but "loot" of the common man by the government.

"When people are reeling under general price rise of over 10 per cent in wholesale price index and 18 per cent in food prices, the government should have applied

the balm and offered relief. But instead it has chosen to burden the common man with double dose of petrol price hike," he said. He asserted that the under recoveries is a notional phenomenon and in reality oil companies are making profits and paying huge dividends to the government.

"The government has no policy and the baseline prices are faulty. The government expects consumer to pay for the inefficiencies of the oil companies that are overstaffed and their procurement and transaction cost is high," Javadear said, asserting that these oil companies also do price rigging at every stage.

State-owned oil companies raised petrol prices by Rs 2.50-Rs 2.54 per litre on Saturday night.