SHILLONG: As the petrol prices in the city have soared more than Rs 83 per litre, the Opposition Congress has slammed the State Government over its silence on the matter.
Congress spokesperson, HM Shangpliang on Thursday said that the matter about the increase in petrol prices was even discussed on the floor of the House and the Opposition was expecting a reply from the State Government on the matter.
“ However the State Government is silent on the increase of petrol price and we are yet to see any statement from the State Government which is very disappointing,” Shangpliang said.
Expressing concern over the continuous increase of petrol prices in the city, he said that the Congress party had asked the State Government to take care of the increasing petrol prices in the state but nothing had been done by the Government in this regard.
He also informed that the issue of the increase in petrol prices was also discussed in the recent CLP meeting of the party.
Apart from petrol, the prices of diesel is also on the rise in the city and in the last four days, petrol prices have been increased by many paisa in Shillong .
It may be recalled that the state government has also refused to lower VAT unlike Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh where governments have cut down on their taxes to reduce absorb the shock of spiralling prices on consumers.
Earlier, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had said the VATs on petrol is lesser than other neighboring states and the state government was under financial pressure.
Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced marginal relief for citizens from runaway fuel prices with excise duty cut of Rs. 1.50 and another Re 1 drop by oil marketing companies, taking the cut in fuel prices to Rs. 2.50.
As per media reports, he also appealed to the states to match the centre’s effort by reducing value-added tax or VAT by Rs. 2.50 so that the total benefit to citizens is at least Rs. 5 and Six BJP-ruled states including the neuighboruing Assam responded by dropping fuel prices by Rs. 2.50.
