Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has no chill for the constant wrangling about rising fuel prices. Here’s his take…
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00:00I think the simplistic political narrative we get in India,
00:03price has gone up, why don't you reduce your taxes?
00:06The 32 rupees a litre that we collect
00:09provides us the ability to provide all these welfare services,
00:14including 1 billion vaccine.
00:30The Government of India has been charging 32 rupees as excise per litre,
00:57whether the price was $19 a barrel or whether it is 84 barrels a dollar.
01:05Yesterday, we completed 1 billion vaccines being administered.
01:12We fed 90 crores people for one full year, three meals in a day, we provided that.
01:22We do Ujjwala, which is a social inclusion scheme.
01:28We are also getting our mothers and sisters and daughters away from unhealthy cooking fuels.
01:35We distributed 8 crore cylinders, another 1 crore now.
01:41Now, I am not the finance minister,
01:43therefore, I don't think that's an appropriate answer for me to give.
01:48But all I can tell you, and because it's relevant here,
01:51that the 32 rupees a litre that we collect
01:55provides us the ability to provide all these welfare services,
02:00including 1 billion vaccine.
02:02But more than that, the states and the centre,
02:06through the spirit of cooperative federalism,
02:08the Kerala High Court had in fact suggested
02:11that petrol and diesel prices be put on the GST agenda.
02:16And in a meeting that took place in Lucknow, the Honourable Finance Minister did.
02:20But the state governments thought otherwise.
02:22Now, Telegraph is a paper based in Calcutta, as far as I know.
02:26And when I was there during a political meeting,
02:30I was asked, why has the price gone up?
02:32I said, the state government has raised it by 3 rupees 51 paisa since July.
02:40And that is the result.
02:41So, I don't want to continue this discussion.
02:43But I think the simplistic political narrative we get in India,
02:47if the price has gone up, why don't you reduce your taxes?
02:50So, every time a price goes up due to something else,
02:53it says that you axe your own feet in the process.
02:56So, I'm not very sensitive to that kind of a discussion.
03:00When the entire population of India gets vaccinated,
03:04will petrol and diesel prices go down?
03:07By then, the prices will go down.