Dear Editor, Through the columns of your esteemed paper, I like to apprize the political commentators that it is not necessary to make the commentaries on announcements of rate cut on petroleum and diesel by the present dispensation but to take it easy as few cool droplets and as few stitches to the holes made in pockets of the users of this commodity. It will, however, leave a hole of many crores in the government’s tax collection but higher mop-up in other taxes is expected to bridge this gap. No doubt it can well be taken as an outcome within 24 hours of the by-elections results in 11 states, the results of which were not entirely to the liking of the ruling party. A ‘Charcha’ in common streets has picked up that present dispensation realizes the common man’s issues only, when it is given a dent in elections. Everybody understands that it is because of the facts that the government is facing a lot of criticism and has crucial elections in the future in the states of Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh probably in the month of March 2022. This political move is to reduce the opposition’s leverage against BJP over the issue of fuel taxes and price rise. The Centre had raised the excise duty by Rs 13 on petrol and Rs 16 on diesel between March and May last year when oil prices collapsed due to the pandemic and these hikes and almost daily dose of price hike had lead to Centre’s fuel tax collection by 88 per cent in 2020-21 to more than Rs 3 lakh crore in spite of lower sales amid the pandemic. We have to understand the underlying move and have to be more cautious about political gimmick to win the elections. Mahadeep Singh Jamwal, Udhampur.
