Govt. can sell E20 petrol at ₹70 per litre, says Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday hit out at the Central government, claiming that as per the current international rate of crude oil, one litre of E20 petrol can be sold at ₹70 and non-E20 petrol at ₹82. He demanded that the government slash the rates to these levels to ease inflation and help common people. Mr. Kejriwal added that before the U.S. attacked Iran, there were times when the crude prices were very low but petrol prices were not reduced. “The government may argue, as I have heard Union Minister Hardeep Puri saying, that oil companies suffered losses during the war in the Middle East and they now need to recover those losses. This argument is completely wrong,” the AAP chief said at a press conference. He said that since 2014, international crude oil prices have fallen six times and even then, whenever crude oil prices came down, the government did not reduce petrol prices. “During those periods, when they earned bumper profits, what happened to that money? Can they not use those profits to compensate for the losses suffered during the three or four months of the war? It has been reported that oil companies made a profit of ₹77,000 crore last year. They have been making bumper profits for the past three to four years. Can’t those profits be used to offset the losses? he said. “What is being charged from people today is an unjustified profit. The government should immediately reduce fuel prices and stop giving false and misleading arguments,” he said.