Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday rebuked the Central government over its measures taken in response to the Coronavirus crisis, saying that tax burdens on the middle class and poor is actually taxing distress.

Expressing his disappointment in a series of tweets, Chidambaram said that new or higher taxes are justified only when the economy is booming.

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He further stressed that “governments should give money to the people in times of distress, not squeeze and take money from the people”. He added that when the Congress has been pleading for cash transfers from the government to the bottom half of the people, the governments are doing a “reverse transfer” of money from the people to the government. He also termed the alleged move as “cruel”.

The Congress leader in another tweet said governments must borrow to meet their deficits, not impose higher tax burdens when economic activity has ground to a halt.

Chidambaram’s remarks come on the heels of the Central government raising the excise duty on petrol and diesel by a historically high margin to raise revenue that has been severely impacted by the Coronavirus induced lockdown.

The Government has increased excise duties by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel – that has the potential to raise the retail price of the two petroleum products between Rs 10-15 per litre depending on the taxation structure in different states.

Also, the Government has raised the additional excise duty in the form of road cess on petrol and diesel by Rs 8 per litre.

It has also raised special additional excise duty on petrol by Rs 2 per litre and diesel by Rs 5 per litre. The Centre would, however, get a tax bonanza and gain in excess of Rs 1,75,000 crore for full year.

These duty rate changes will come into effect from today ie, May 6, as per a notification issued by Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.

Retail sale prices of petrol and diesel will, however, not change on account of this increase in duties. Therefore, it will have no impact on the consumer.

Meanwhile, the increased excise rates on petrol and diesel is double blow for fuel customers on states like Delhi where the government on Tuesday also raised VAT on the two products to 30 per cent raising its retail price by Rs 1.67 per litre in case of petrol and about rs 7.1 per litre in case of diesel.

Meanwhile, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has termed Centre’s decision to raise excise duty on petrol and diesel as “unfair” and called for its withdrawal.

“The ongoing battle with Coronavirus is causing severe economic hardship for our millions of brothers and sisters. At this time, instead of lowering prices, 10-13 on petrol and diesel. The government’s decision to increase the tax per liter is unfair and should be withdrawn,” he said in a tweet.