‘Worse than Aurangzeb’ – Kapil Sibal slams Centre over tax on petrol and diesel

New Delhi, Feb. 9 (PTI): Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday slammed the government for increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel, alleging its tax regime is worse than that of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.

During the second day of the discussion on the union budget 2022-23, Sibal said that in 2014, the price of petrol was INRRs 71, and in January 2022, it was Rs 95.

Central excise which we implemented in 2014 was 9.2 percent per litre. You made it 27 percent. How much increase does it lead to? 203 percent.

“Diesel price was INR 55. The excise on it was Rs 3.46. Today the price is Rs 86 and excise is INR 21 on diesel and the increase is 530 percent, Sibal said

During the discussion, Sibal made reference to ‘Jizya’tax which was introduced by Ahmad Shah and later abolished by Akhbar.

Then Aurangzeb came. He again implemented it in 1617 and said that it will not be applicable to people who are deprived, unemployed. It will not be applicable to poor people.

“It will not be applicable to those who protect us, army personnel. This is what Aurangzeb said. This is worse than Aurangzeb. You have implemented it on everyone that too 530 percent and 203 percent, Sibal said.

The Congress MP said he was surprised to hear the prime minister talking about “tukde tukde” in Parliament.

In his reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks on the President’s address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused the Congress of becoming the leader of “tukde tukde gang”.

The term has been used by the BJP to target the people whom it accuses of supporting separatists.

“One who does ‘tukde tukde” (dismembering) of culture, history, Constitution, brotherhood is the “leader of the tukde tukde gang,” Sibal hit back.

Taking a swipe over the reference to ‘Amrit Kaal’ in the budget speech, Sibal said it has been ‘Rahu Kaal’ (inauspicious period) since 2014, when the BJP came to power.

The term Amrit Kaal is being used by the government to refer to the period of the next 25 years that will take India to 100 years of independence.

Sibal said the budget does not mention unemployment, poverty, food security, informal sector, migrants, daily wagers, health for all, welfare, social protection, women, youth.

I ask myself who is the budget for. Is it for the one or two percent of people at the top who buy all the ports and airports?

What’s the responsibility of any government and the finance minister? Responsibility is to take care of people at the bottom of the pyramid, he said.

The Congress Rajya Sabha MP cited the World Bank Data of 2019 and said the unemployment rate in India was 23 percent amongst the youth.

He said that the budget has increased capital expenditure by Rs 2 lakh crore for building infrastructure but other sectors where there has been job loss like manufacturing, hotel and tourism, education, overall services sector, central government employment, etc.

Sibal said that the government should look at creating wealth by supporting universities and enhancing spending on research and development.

Anywhere in the world wealth is created in universities. Wealth is never created by industry. Industry uses the ideas and innovation that come through young people in the universities and turns them into goods and services.

If you give benefit to the industry it is not going to create wealth. It is going to create wealth for those individuals but the real wealth will be created in the university system. The other wealth will be created by research and development, he said.

Sibal said that as a percentage of GDP, the US spends USD 606 bn every year on R&D, China USD 514 billion, Japan USD 172 billion, Germany 172 billion, France USD 63 billion and India’s expenditure is USD 47 billion.

What does a mother think? Always thinks about weaker children in the family. The child who is self-dependent is left to be on his own. We will help those who are not self-dependent. Did you give them any support and you talk about Amrit Kaal? I have been seeing Rahu Kaal since 2014.

Which Amrit Kaal are you talking about? Since 2014 I have been seeing Rahu Kaal, Sibal said.

He said that MGNREGA allocation has been reduced to INR 73,000 crore from INR 1.1 lakh crore and out of that, around INR 13,000 crore have to be paid to the states which brings the actual allocation to INR 60,000 crore.

Unless you put money in the hands of people and they spend it, the economy will not improve. Their purchasing power has to be increased, Sibal said.

BJP member Sushil Modi said Nirmala Sitharaman has passed from JNU and unlike former finance minister P Chidambaram, she does not have a degree from Harvard Business School.

But I can say that she has presented a 100 times better budget compared to the budget presented by Congress at the time of the global financial crisis in 2012-13, he said.

He said that under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India has been able to save the lives of 40-45 lakh people during the Covid-19 period and noted the higher death rate in the other affected countries.

“If we did not have the leadership of Narendra Modi and had there not been the support of frontline doctors and nurses, then instead of five lakh, more than 50 lakh people would have died,

He said that India does not have facilities like the US, UK and Brazil but we have saved 40-45 lakh people from dying .

He stressed that every page of the budget talks about employment.

Cash transfer, income support does not create jobs. Jobs are created by capital expenditure, manufacturing,” he said.