Mangaluru:  “Petrol and diesel prices are continuously gone up. Presently, the cost of diesel is Rs 70.4 per litre, while for petrol it is Rs 78.86 per litre. Before Modi came to power, the cost of crude oil was US$ 102.02 per barrel and the petrol price was Rs 67 per litre. Now in some parts of the country, the price has even shot up to Rs 86 per litre,”MLC Ivan D’Souza said on Saturday, September 1st.

Addressing the media he said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has looted the nation by increasing the fuel price, Regular price hike of petrol and diesel has a huge impact on common man. We have constantly demanded to bring down the prices. But only empty assurances were given by the Central government. Modi has looted the wealth of the nation through fuel. The percentage increase in excise duty of petrol since May 2014 is 211.7%. It was Rs 9.2 per litre in 2014, whereas it is Rs 19.48 per litre now,” he observed.

“Petrol and diesel in India are available in the range of Rs 78 to Rs 86 and Rs 70 to Rs 75 respectively. But an RTI reply has revealed that Modi government is selling Petrol to 15 foreign countries at just Rs 34 per litre and diesel at Rs 37 per litre. Modi government has betrayed and backstabbed the people. We had demanded that petrol and diesel should be brought under GST but our demand was not honoured by BJP,” he added.

Ivan D’Souza also demanded to release of a white paper on expenditure spent on just advertisement in the last four years to develop the image of the ruling party and said that the party will protest in including every common man and with opinion poll about the hike in petrol and diesel.