BHUBANESWAR: Protesting the spiralling prices of petrol and diesel, the BJD will launch a State-wide protest for three days, beginning May 28. Announcing this at a media conference, BJD general secretary Sanjay Dasbarma and former minister Arun Sahu said the party will stage a demonstration near Raj Bhawan on May 29 and submit a memorandum addressed to the President and Governor.
The party has decided to protest the fuel price hike in all the 314 block headquarters by staging peaceful demonstration from May 28 to 30. Coming down heavily on the BJP-led NDA government at Centre for increasing the Central excise by 110 percent on a litre of petrol and 350 per cent on diesel in the last four years, the BJD leaders said the Centre exploited the people even when the international price of crude oil was at all time low.
They said the excise duty on petrol which was Rs 9.2 per litre in July, 2014 has increased by 110 per cent to Rs 19.48 per litre in February this year. Similarly, excise duty on diesel has increased from Rs 3.46 per litre to Rs 15.33 per litre during the same period.With the increase in prices on the two petroleum products for the 10th time in a row, petrol price in the State has reached an all time high of Rs 75.98 per litre while diesel was selling at Rs 73.26 per litre.
Instead of reducing the Central excise, the Centre has been advising he states to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel. Claiming that the 26 percent VAT imposed by the state government on the two products is less than that of the tax levied by many other states, they warned the Centre that the BJD will intensify the agitation if it failed to take urgent measures to reduce price of the fuel.