New Delhi: Amid a clamour by the Opposition for cutting taxes to soften record high petrol and diesel prices, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday equated the move to 'axing one's own feet', saying such levies funded government schemes to provide free COVID-19 vaccines, meals and cooking gas to millions amid the pandemic.
He also said domestic rates are linked to international oil prices, which have shot up due a variety of reasons which need to be understood.
"I think this simplistic political narrative we get in India (that), 'Prices have gone up why don't you reduce your taxes'... so every time price goes up due to something else, it says you axe your own feet in the process," he told reporters here.
He was asked a question on whether the government would cut taxes, which make up for 54 per cent of the price of petrol and over 48 per cent of diesel, to ease the burden on consumers.
"Yesterday we completed vaccinating one billion (against COVID), we fed 90 crore people for one full year (during the pandemic) providing 3 meals in a day, we did Ujjwala scheme (of providing free cooking gas LPG refill to 8 crore poor beneficiaries).
"All this and much more with that Rs 32 a litre excise duty (levied by the Central government)," he asserted.
The money collected from tax also goes into building roads, constructing houses for the poor and other social welfare schemes. "I am not the finance minister therefore it is not an appropriate answer for me to give," he said on demands for cutting taxes. "That Rs 32 a litre that we collect provides us the ability to provide all these welfare services, including 1 billion vaccines."
The relentless hikes in prices have pushed petrol and diesel rates to record highs across the country. Petrol is priced at over Rs 100 a litre or more in almost all major cities, while diesel is at those levels in over a dozen states and union territories (UTs).