Petrol price crosses Rs 100/l mark in Kolkata
Kolkata: For the first time ever, the price of petrol touched a new high and crossed Rs 100 mark in Kolkata. The new rate of Rs 100.23 a litre will become effective from 6 am on Wednesday.
The petrol price on Tuesday was Rs 99.84 a litre in Kolkata. With an increase of 39 paise per litre, the price has reached Rs 100.23 in the city and its surrounding areas.
Around 700 petrol pumps will go for a token strike for around half-an-hour from 7 pm to 7.30 pm on Wednesday evening protesting against the hike in prices of petrol and diesel claiming that it is also resulting in heavy losses.
The petrol price had crossed the Rs 100 mark at different places in 19 out of 23 districts in the state. From Wednesday morning, a litre of petrol will get sold at more than Rs 100 across the state. It needs to be mentioned that Mumbai was the first metropolitan where the petrol price had crossed Rs 100 mark. The price of diesel in Kolkata has also increased by 23 paise and stood at Rs 92.50 a litre.
While replying to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's speech at the state Assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit out at the BJP-led Centre for its indifferent attitude towards the abnormal hike in fuel prices.
"The petrol and diesel prices are going up every day. But the Centre is indifferent. The price of cooking gas has also gone up," she said.
Her statement comes when petrol and diesel prices have increased eight times since May 4 and out of these, prices were hiked six times only in the month of June.
The Chief Minister wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting to substantially reduce the Central taxes on fuel to give much-needed relief to people by checking the present inflationary trend in the country.
Raising her demand for substantial reduction in the Central taxes, Banerjee had also expressed her wonder in her letter knowing that the Centre collected revenue of Rs 3.71 lakh crore only from oil and petroleum in the 2020-21 fiscal when people were extremely distressed amidst the pandemic. "In the midst of this Covid pandemic, the Government of India has collected revenue of staggering Rs 3.71 lakh crore from oil and petroleum products in the financial year 2020-21. In fact, over the last six years of your government, Government of India's tax collection from oil and petroleum products has jumped by a staggering 370% since 2014-15, due
to constant hikes in Central Excise Duty on oil and petroleum products including cesses and surcharges, at
the cost of the common people," her letter reads.
Minister of State for Labour Becharam Manna will be reaching the state Assembly on bicycle, if everything remains as planned, protesting against the abnormal hike in petrol and diesel prices.
"Lights of all petrol pumps in and around Kolkata will be turned off and there will be no sale from 7 pm to 7.30 pm on Wednesday. We are holding a virtual meeting with all concerned members of the association as we will be intensifying our protest against such abnormal hike," said Prasenjit Sen, joint secretary of West Bengal Petroleum Dealers Association.
