Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday commented on the record high petroleum and diesel prices and said that such levies helped fund the government schemes to provide free Covid-19 vaccines, meals to the impoverished and cooking gas to millions of people across the country.
He says cutting taxes is akin to ‘axing one’s own feet’ as the taxes fund developmental projects across the country like building roads, constructing houses for the poor and other social welfare schemes.
“I think this simplistic political narrative we get in India (that), ‘Prices have gone up, why don’t you reduce your taxes’. So every time the price goes up due to something else, it says you axe your own feet in the process,” Puri was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
