The Congress on Monday blasted the Narendra Modi government for persisting with “fuel loot”, arguing the assault on the common man through a Rs 59 hike in the price of a cooking gas cylinder was “unpardonable”.
“It is tax terror. (The) cost of 14.2kg non-subsidised cylinder in May 2014 was Rs 414. On October 1, 2018, this cost has been raised to Rs 879 per cylinder,” a Congress statement said.
“People are now fed up of this fuel loot. Yesterday’s midnight assault on the budgets of common people is the final nail in the coffin of a government that has now lost the moral right to govern.”
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera highlighted that the price of subsidised cooking gas too had risen by Rs 90 a cylinder.
“This robbery is continuing despite the fact that international crude oil prices have come down drastically. On May 16, 2014, the price of crude was $107.09 per barrel. (The) current price is $73 per barrel,” Khera said. “Average crude price during the 52 months of Modi government is $50 per barrel, around 55 per cent less than (that during) the UPA’s tenure. Even then, petrol is selling at Rs 91.08 and diesel at Rs 79.72 in Mumbai.”
Khera reacted to reports that the Modi government had written off Rs 316,500 crore worth of loans between 2014 and 2018.
“This is what has been written off. The most critical data is how much loans they have given through public sector banks between 2014 and 2018,” he said.
“We have sought this information in Parliament and through RTI. No answer is being given. Why? They can reel out statistical details of the (Jawaharlal) Nehru era but not of their government?”
Rahul Gandhi too referred to the loan write-off reports. “Modi’s India — For Common Man: Notebandi — line up and put your money in banks. All your details into Aadhaar. You can’t use your own money,” he tweeted.
“For crony capitalists: Notebandi — convert all your black money to white. Let’s write off 3.16 lakh crore using common man’s money.”
He attached a report with this tweet that suggested that RBI data had revealed that the country’s 21 public-sector banks had ended up writing
off Rs 3,16,500 crore of loans
between 2014 and 2018 while recovering Rs 44,900 crore written off on a cumulative basis.
“The amount of bad loans written off by public sector banks during the four-year period is well over twice the projected budgetary expenditure on health, education and social protection for 2018-19, at Rs 1.38 lakh crore,” the report said.
“Further, from April 2014 to April 2018, the loans written off by the 21 PSBs were over 166 per cent of the amount in the ten years till 2014.”
