BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Monday said the Odisha bandh by Congress protesting the spiraling prices of petrol and diesel is to divert attention of the people from its internal squabbles.
“The Congress is facing an identity crisis as its vote share is rapidly falling. As the party is fast losing its popularity and relevance, it called for a State wide bandh to stay relevant,” said State BJP general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar.
She said the increased retail price of petrol and diesel is linked to price volatility of crude oil in the international market, shipping and other transport costs and refinery cost.
Though the retail pricing of petrol and diesel has been deregulated and oil marketing companies (OMCs) were following a daily price revision formula, the same was suspended for almost two months to prevent the volatility in the international oil markets from impacting the fuel prices regularly during the pandemic.
Now the OMCs have resorted to the same practice, hence the fluctuation of retail price, she said. She added that the tax collected from petroleum products is not going to Swiss Bank but to the welfare of the people.
The Centre provided free LPG gas to 45.34 lakh families involving a cost of Rs 571.72 crore during the COVID pandemic lockdown.
Reacting to the bandh, deputy leader of BJP legislature party Bishnu Sethi said the country depends on imports to meet its fossil fuel requirement as its production is less than five per cent of the demand.
The State government is earning revenue of thousands of crores in the form of VAT from fuel. Since petroleum products are not brought under the ambit of GST and the Centre and State refused to slash excise and other tax, the retail price remained high.
The day GST is implemented, fuel prices will come down drastically, Sethi said. Reduction in VAT by the State government on petroleum products will provide the much needed relief to the consumers.