Oppn walks out of RS on oil minister's response

Dissatisfied with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's reply on increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel, opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United) and Samajwadi Party staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha.

Pradhan said the hike was necessary for raking money for financing social welfare schemes.

Opposition parties contended reduction in petrol and diesel prices domestically in the past six months was not commensurate with declining global crude oil prices. They also questioned the justification of levying excise duty depriving consumers of their due benefit.

The Left parties have already submitted a statutory motion in the Rajya Sabha challenging the hike.

Tapan Kumar Sen of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) argued even as international prices of crude oil had eased, the government had deprived consumers of the benefit by raising the excise duty.

Pradhan then attempted to bolster his stand by saying money was needed to carry out "welfare measures" for the poor like electricity and education. He then goaded the Opposition by alleging they had left the coffers empty.

NCP leader Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain attempted to challenge the statistics doled out by Pradhan, stating while international crude had come down by about 45 per cent, the cut in retail prices of fuel was only about 12 per cent.