Oppn members demand rollback of excise duty hike in petrol

New Delhi: A strong demand for withdrawing the latest hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel and rollback of the increase in their prices was made by opposition members in the Lok Sabha today.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, P Venugopal (AIADMK) said this was necessary to provide relief to the common man.

Supported by Left members, he said that the move would increase the cost of commuting and further raise the prices of essential commodities.

The AIADMK leader made the demand soon after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled a notification in the House increasing excise duty on petrol by 30 paise per litre and by Rs 1.17 a litre on diesel to make use of the slump in oil prices to garner an additional Rs 2,500 crore.

Basic excise duty on unbranded petrol has been increased from Rs 7.06 per litre to Rs 7.36 and the same on unbranded diesel from Rs 4.66 to Rs 5.83 per litre.

Raising the issue of Purulia air drops of armaments 20 years ago, Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) said the government should put diplomatic pressure on Denmark to bring Kim Davy to India so that he could be brought to justice.

Dharmendra Yadav (SP) made a strong plea for raising the limit of creamy layer in the OBC category to income of Rs 20 lakh from the present Rs 15 lakh. He sought enhancement of reservation of the backward classes in government services.