New Delhi, March 27 – The reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel is aimed at the upcoming assembly elections in four states, not because the government cares about consumers, TMC Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale said.
Participating in a discussion on the Finance Bill 2026 in the Upper House, Gokhale demanded that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman give an assurance that fuel prices will not be increased after April 29, when voting is completed in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.
After the excise cut was announced, he said, ministers of the government have been saying that the Modi government is taking a hit at its own resources, rather than increasing petrol and diesel prices.
"This is happening because four major states are going to elections. The only reason this excise duty cut has been done today is because this government cannot, absolutely cannot, raise fuel prices when four major states are going into elections," Gokhale asserted.
If the government really cares for the welfare of people so much and does not want to burden them with high prices, he asked why the benefit of buying discounted crude from Russia in the last four years was not passed on to consumers.
"For the last four years, the government was purchasing crude oil at extremely discounted prices, below USD 60 per barrel. We were purchasing discounted crude from Russia. In these four years, (out of) this benefit... not a single rupee was passed on to consumers at petrol and diesel pumps," Gokhale noted.
The TMC member asked if the finance minister will "give a commitment on the floor of this House that after April 29 when the voting is completed in all the four states, the government will promise that it will not increase the petrol and diesel prices at fuel pumps even by one rupee?"
He further said, "That is the commitment that the finance minister should give today, that this excise duty is permanent. We are not going to raise prices after April 29."
Gokhale alleged that "the government does not think about people, they only think about elections."
Sanjay Seth of BJP, however, said the war in West Asia has spiked crude oil price and most countries in the world have hiked their domestic oil prices.
"But the government cut excise duty instead of passing the burden on common people... this shows how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concerned about the common people," he asserted.
Taking part in the discussion, Shaktisinh Gohil of Congress said the Budget did not have anything for the poor and the middle class, while the benefits have only been provided to the rich and big corporate houses.
While flagging lack of steps to tackle high unemployment among the youth, he also lashed out at the government for removing import duty on items like soya bean and said the interest of Indian farmers has been compromised.
How will Indian farmers compete with those in the US who have large land parcels using modern machinery and are subsidised by the government there, Gohil asked.
He also questioned the rationale behind making zero import duty on critical minerals saying no foreign player will be willing to make large investments for exploration in the sector in India.
P Wilson of DMK in his remarks said the NDA government came to power promising 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' but "what we have today (is) a regime 'Sabka Bojh Sirf Unka Vikas', which means burden on many and benefits for the chosen few."
In the Budget, welfare expenditure has been slashed, gender budget has been cut and schemes that sustain the poor have been shortchanged, he added.
The members of the House also raised issues related to GST and defence budget allocation.
Ashok Kumar Mittal of AAP said on GST that while the government claimed ease of doing business has improved, the ground reality is different. It has become "ease of doing harassment and a mode of tax terrorism," he alleged.
"In 2024, 40,000 MSMEs and 10,000 startups were forced to shut," Mittal said, observing that first, the tax liability of a business is calculated, followed by raid on a shopkeeper and officials have the power of immediate arrest.
He also called for effective utilisation of public money, saying Rs 48,000 crore was allocated for Smart City Yojana but "we don't know of a single smart city".
He also alleged cost overruns and missed deadlines on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.
S Niranjan Reddy of YSRCP urged the government to "please do something out of the box for ensuring that the defence Budget and the defence allocation goes up".
He called for improvement in judicial infrastructure and justice delivery mechanism.
Pointing at several capacity constraints, Reddy highlighted the huge pendency of cases in various courts, saying the pendency is affecting justice delivery mechanism.
Suggesting a faster adoption away from oil and gas, he called for removal of GST on electric vehicles.
He also urged the government to consider increasing the speed of privatisation of PSUs.
Manas Ranjan Mangaraj of the BJD pointed to a "pattern of systematic neglect of Odisha", saying the state is not asking for charity but for its rightful share.
He also demanded fiscal incentives and a fair share of mineral royalties for the state, saying on Odisha tourism has immense untapped potential.