Two days after the central government increased fuel prices and some Congress-led state governments announced a cut in the fuel cess, the BJP said it was yet to take a call on the matter, and indeed appeared reluctant to do so.
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi put the government on the mat saying the central government?s oil pricing policy was flawed and that to ask the states to forgo their share of the revenue was a ?joke?.
?Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had anyway set unrealistic targets for bridging the fiscal deficit, and now with this hike, he is trying to use the oil revenue to make up for this target,? he said. ?The central BJP has asked the chief ministers of BJP ruled states to take a call on the matter only after deliberation as we think that state governments’ cuts in fuel prices can only make a cosmetic difference to the overall hike in fuel prices.?
?In a way we can say that in order to balance his own budget, the finance minister has upset the aam aadmi?s budget,? he said.
FE spoke to Bihar finance minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Modi on the matter. ?On LPG we have very little scope to cut cess, since the state only levies one per cent cess on it, down from nearly 12.5% a few years ago,? he said. ?As for kerosene and diesel, I will be speaking to CM Nitish Kumar as early as tonight if something can be done, although I don?t think there is much scope for us to do anything,? he added.