Hyderabad (Telangana): In an open letter to the Central government, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao has hit out at the rising fuel prices, accusing the Centre of acting as a "middleman" in buying crude oil cheaply in the international market and selling at higher prices to the people in the country. The Minister also lashed out at the Centre for "blaming state governments" for the price rise of the fuel.
"The Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is acting as a middleman, buying crude oil cheaply and selling petrol and diesel to the people at higher prices while shamelessly blaming state governments for the rising prices. While raising petrol prices massively, the Union government has come up with the ridiculous argument that state governments should reduce taxes," KTR wrote on Wednesday. Calling the reasons stated by the Centre for the hike in the fuel prices "pure lies", the Minister said that the Union Ministers are "deliberately hiding" that the petrol rate is lower in other countries.
Also read: Petrol, diesel prices hiked by 80 paise; total increase now stands at Rs 5.60
"All the reasons cited by the Modi government for not controlling prices are pure lies. The BJP leaders are simply narrating stories, such as the problems in the international crude oil supply, the rise in crude oil prices, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Union ministers who say prices are rising in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, and even France are deliberately hiding that the petrol rate there is lower than ours," he wrote.
KTR also took a swipe at the Centre over not raising the petrol prices until the conclusion of the Assembly elections in the five states, and said that the government has "made it a habit" to raise petrol prices.
"The central government did not raise petrol prices for weeks and months during the 2017 Gujarat elections, the 2019 general elections, and the recent elections in five states. But the Modi government has been raising petrol prices almost every day since the results came out. In the last fortnight, the Modi government has raised petrol prices 13 times," KTR wrote.
ANI
