With more than a year to go before the 2024 general election, the Congress seems to have taken the first steps as it hit out at the central government for raising the price of domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders by ₹50 on Wednesday, March 1. Domestic LPG in Delhi will now cost ₹1,103 per cylinder.
Petroleum and oil marketing companies also raised the price of commercial LPG cylinders by ₹350.50 per unit with immediate effect. The non-subsidised LPG price was hiked to ₹1,103 per 14.2-kg cylinder – the first increase since July 2022. Earlier, on January 1, commercial cylinder prices were increased by ₹25 per cylinder.
Demanding a rollback on the hike, Congress said that it voted to power in the 2024 general elections and it will provide gas cylinders below ₹500.
“Just a week ahead of Holi, the government has increased the cost of the domestic gas cylinder by ₹50 and the commercial gas cylinder by ₹350, thus making them costlier at ₹1,100 and ₹2,100 respectively,” Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said.
“In the 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, it gave a total of ₹2.14 lakh crore as subsidies on LPG cylinders. The central government, in the last nine years, has given a subsidy of ₹36,000 crores on gas cylinders,” he added.
Vallabh said that the central government must learn from the state government of Congress. “Learn from our government in Rajasthan, which is giving subsidised LPG cylinders to more than half of its families for less than ₹500 despite having fewer resources,” he said.
Demanding a rollback of the hike in the price of the LPG cylinders, Vallabh said, “And the price of the LPG cylinder should not be above ₹500. When state governments can do it, why not the central government?”
“If Congress comes to power in 2024, then the cost of an LPG cylinder will not be above ₹500, this is a promise,” he said.
With the latest hike, commercial LPG cylinders will now cost ₹2,119.50 per unit, a 19.8 per cent hike from ₹1,769 earlier. The price of domestic LPG cylinders will be ₹1,103 per unit, a 4.7 per cent increase from ₹1,057 in Delhi.
The hike of ₹350.50 is the second biggest hike after ₹350, per cylinder weighing 19 kg, in 2014. Now, the commercial LPG cylinder is back above ₹2,100 per unit for the first time since June 2022.
Slamming the government over inflation, Vallabh said that the prices of milk have been hiked by ₹7 per litre, prices of wheat flour by 40 per cent, prices of spices by 21 per cent, and the unemployment rate increased to 7.45 per cent.
Targeting the central government, Vallabh said that India’s Q3 GDP growth rate is 4.4 per cent. “If we ask questions to the central government, then they will send the ED, police and CBI after us. This is not the economic governance model of any democratic government,” he said.