Kolkata, Sept 14 (IBNS): West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has blamed the Centre over the rising prices of petrol and diesel and said he feared that the country's GDP growth rate will be negatively affected due to the upward moving prices of fuels.
Speaking at the 164th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Mitra said recently: "The excise duty on petrol price increased from Rs 9.48 to Rs 19.48 per litre which is a Rs 10 hike, while duty on diesel prices increased from Rs 3.56 to Rs 15.33 per litre, which is an increase of Rs 11.77 during the BJP regime."
He referred to the move made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee where she reduced the tax on petrol and diesel by Re 1 per litre this week.
He said: "West Bengal government has not changed cess or sales tax on fuel and as a gesture the Chief Minister of West Bengal has made a Rs.1 reduction in the prices."
Mitra said: "There is no VAT charged in West Bengal. When the international prices of crude oil fell from Rs 104 to Rs 33 per barrel, the centre did not create any buffer stock. There is also no fuel price stabilization and now they keep increasing the fuel prices even though rupee has been increasing compared to dollar."
He siad: "What really worries me, is that the rupee really starts to sink in regards to inflation. The CPI (Consumer Price Index) might go up to 5.2% this year. When the inflationary expectations set in, then the RBI comes in and the interest rates rise up. This has many reverberations such as the, EMI for housing and cars become higher on one side."
Amit Mitra said that he was deeply concerned that the GDP growth rate will be negatively affected due to the rise in fuel prices.
(Reporting by Meghna Dunbar)
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