Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should abolish central excise duty on diesel and roll back recent hike in prices of diesel, petrol, LPG and kerosene oil.
"The Chief Minister has sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to abolish excise duty on diesel in the wake of large scale protest against hike in petrol prices and to demand roll back of the recent hike," a government spokesman said.
In her letter, Mayawati said a hike of Rs 3 and Rs 2 in prices of diesel and kerosene oil and Rs 50 in LPG would create an additional burden on the people.
"Due to the hike in diesel price, prices of consumable items will also increase due to higher transportation cost," she said.
She said there was no justification behind the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers for price revision when graph of rates of crude oil in the international market was on the decline.
"When the rate of crude oil had declined by 5 per cent in the international market, the decision to raise the price was not logical," she said.
Mayawati alleged that in the last six years from 2005-06 to 2010-11, the UPA government extended a rebate of Rs 21 lakh crore to the corporate world and to make up the loss, it raised the prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG.
She said that in 2008 the state government reduced local tax on diesel from 21 per cent to 17.23 per cent and abolished 4 per cent tax on LPG.
Due to deduction in the tax rate, the state exchequer is facing a burden of Rs 1000 crore annually, she added.
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