‘Too late’: Shiv Sena on reduction in fuel prices

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ The reduction in fuel prices had come “too late”, the Shiv Sena said Friday and claimed that the Centre had mopped up Rs 1 lakh crore per day when the rates of petrol and diesel were being increased daily. It also slammed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his reported remark that he was “ready to mortgage the state in Dr B R Ambedkar’s service”.

The government Thursday announced a Rs 2.50 per litre cut in petrol and diesel prices by reducing excise duty and asking PSU oil firms to take a hit of Rs 9,000 crore, a step that was matched by BJP-ruled states by slashing VAT so as to double the reduction in retail rates.

“The decision by the Centre and the Maharashtra government to reduce fuel prices has come too late. The increase in fuel prices daily in the past has led to a deposit of Rs 1 lakh crore everyday in the country’s coffer,” the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

If the Centre grants Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore out of the mopped up funds for the memorial of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji and Dr B R Ambedkar, the chief minister would not have to mortgage the state, it said in a broadside against Fadnavis.