Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that India is the only country where the prices of petrol and diesel have come down over a representative period.

“Bharat is the only country, where prices of petrol and diesel over a representative period have come down in the case of petrol by about 2 per cent or so and diesel by a little per cent instead of going up,” the Union Minister said.

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“How did we manage this? PM (Narendra) Modi reduced the excise duty levied by the Centre on two occasions, November 2021 and May 2022. As a result, central excise duty came down and all the BJP states also reduced the VAT that they charged. If you go into the VAT figures it becomes clear,” he said.

“The difference in price between Itanagar and Chennai is Rs 9.90 for petrol, between Lucknow and Telangana is Rs 12.76, between Gandhinagar and Bengaluru is Rs 8.21, between Panaji and Kerala is Rs 12.35, between Guwahati and Kolkata is Rs 6.80. Between 2004 and 2014, Congress introduced petrol bonds. They floated Rs 1.41 lakh crore and today we are having to pay back Rs 3.20 lakh crores,” he added.

Highlighting the international parameters, the minister said, “The price of petrol and diesel at the bunk is determined in large part due to the international prevailing price because we import 85% of our requirements of crude oil.

”I have done some statistics, between 2004 and 2014 the price of petrol and diesel in Bengaluru went up by 84 per cent. This is during the Congress time and in diesel, it went up by 111 per cent. Because the international price had gone up and to that, you add the cost of insurance, cost of freight, refining margin,” he said.

“In our time, from 2014 to 2024, there was turbulence in the international situation, there was a Russia-Ukraine war situation which is still going on, there was a problem closer to home in the Red Sea, attacks by Houthi rebels. Yet we have been able to navigate the international situation,” he highlighted.

Earlier, a day after Karnataka’s Government revised fuel prices in the state, Union Minister Puri slammed Congress’s Siddaramaiah government for putting extra burden on people. Karnataka recently announced a hike in petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3.

In a post on micro-blogging site X, Puri, said, “After this decision, people of Karnataka would be forced to pay higher amounts for food items, clothing, medicines and all items of necessities as fuel prices directly impact prices of all goods. Just after elections have been concluded, such a decision exposes the hypocrisy of the Congress, which talks about ‘mehengai’ but levies approximately Rs 8litre- Rs 12/litre additional VAT compared with BJP-ruled states.”