BJP Tamil Nadu Youth Wing President Dr SG Suryah staged a symbolic protest on Friday, 12 December 2025, by arriving at the party’s youth-wing office-bearers’ meeting in Pollachi on a bullock cart, mocking the DMK government for failing to reduce petrol and diesel prices as promised during the 2021 Assembly election campaign.

Suryah questioned the ruling party’s unkept assurances, asking, “Why hasn’t the DMK reduced petrol and diesel prices as per its election pledge?” The dramatic entry drew attention from locals and party workers, who viewed the act as a pointed critique of the government’s economic governance.

He accused the DMK of betraying voters’ trust and said the protest was intended to highlight how rising fuel prices continue to burden ordinary citizens.

Condemning the DMK government for failing to cut fuel prices as promised, I registered my strong protest in Pollachi today by arriving at the @BJYMinTN office bearers’ meeting on a bullock cart.

தேர்தல் வாக்குறுதிப்படி பெட்ரோல், டீசல் விலையை இன்னும் குறைக்காதது ஏன்?… pic.twitter.com/nZttIoeW7c

— Dr.SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) December 12, 2025

The event, held as part of the BJP Youth Wing’s administrative meeting, gained traction online after images of Suryah’s bullock-cart arrival circulated widely on social media.

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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with the Chief Ministers of the states, he shared his thoughts that it would be pertinent on the parts of Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel.

PM Modi said, “I request all states during the current global challenges, we should work as a team in line with the ethos of cooperative federalism.”

Central Govt’s Reduced Taxes On Its Part

As Diwali gift to the citizens of the nation, the Central Government reduced its excise duty on petrol & diesel by ₹5 and ₹10 respectively and he had appealed to the state governments to reduce VAT. All the BJP ruled states followed suit and reduced their components. Yes, states had to bear their share of loss. For instance, Gujarat and Kanataka had to forego a revenue of ₹4000 crores and ₹3000 crores respectively.

On the other hand, Maharashtra collected an excess of ₹3500 crores, Tamil Nadu earned ₹2400 crores and states like Telangana and AP earned over ₹1500 crores during the same duration.

The Prime Minister’s request has not gone down well with the opposition state CM’s like K. Chandrasekhar Rao, MK Stalin, Mamata Banerji and Uddhav Thackeray. Telanagana CM Chandrasekhar Rao said that the PM should feel ashamed for advising states to cut taxes. Similarly, as expected, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin made unwarraneted comments on the floor of the Assembly.

Breaking Down The Fuel Prices

Revenue earned by Central Government is less than ₹27.9 per litre on petrol and ₹21.8 per litre on diesel. If we calculate the 42% devolution of excise duty to states then the actual revenue per litre of petrol would be ₹22.6 and ₹21.22 per litre of diesel. (This calculation is arrived at keeping ₹12.4 for petrol and ₹9.8 for diesel as excise duty and reducing 42% as devolution to states.)

DMK Fails To Fulfil Its Promises

As indicated in the above table, it is clear that after reduction by Centre and BJP ruled state governments it is important for opposition ruled state to reduce the tax burden for people. People of Tamil Nadu must also remember the tall promises made in the DMK manifesto before elections that they would reduce ₹5 and ₹4 on petrol and diesel respectively once elected to power. They reduced only ₹3 on petrol and the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu had the audacity to ask the media, “did we announce the date & time for reduction.” It is an altogether different matter that DMK has not bothered to fulfil many of its promises made in their manifesto like providing subsidy of ₹100 on LPG cylinder and giving ₹1000 for every woman in the household. These unfulfilled promises would haunt the Stalin Government soon.

Comparing Fuel Prices Of Different States

Apart from Tamil Nadu states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana levy exorbitant VAT amounting to 31%, 26% & 35.2% which is resulting in high petrol and diesel prices. A cursory look at the prices across states would indicate the disparity in fuel prices in opposition ruled states as compared to that of BJP ruled states.

This table clearly indicates the effect of reduction of state taxes in keeping the fuel rates low in the BJP ruled states but for the state of Madhya Pradesh. In fact, the impact of high diesel prices in opposition ruled states is clearly causing inflation in the economy since diesel rates impact the cost of food & vegetables. It is high time for the opposition ruled states to look at reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT).

No Value Addition By States But They Levy Value Added Tax

At this point in time it is paramount to ask the state governments on what is the value addition that states bring to fuel which allows them to add VAT. Since the procurement of crude is done by the central government, refining is done by companies and it is the oil marketing companies which fixes the prices and also appoints the retailer. Transportation is also not done by the state governments and hence it is time for the society to ask if charging as high as 35.2% VAT by state governments is justified without adding any value whatsoever.

The Governments of Telangana and Tamil Nadu have been making windfall of profits from the VAT collected from its citizens and it is absurd on their part to say that we should go back to the taxation followed by UPA regime.

The above two table clearly indicate that neither of the states have seen dip in their revenues from VAT but for the pandemic induced lockdowns which affected the revenue across the globe.

Going Back To 2014

A point raised by regional parties like DMK and TRS also deserves attention. Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu PTR and all-powerful Telangana Minister KTR keeps shouting that central government is depriving states by charging cess which does not come under the shared pool with the states. At the outset this argument looks fair but on a deeper analysis this argument is bereft of facts.

It was the government led by Narendra Modi which decided to charge the Agriculture cess and Infrastructure cess for several reasons. One of the primary reasons for Agriculture cess is the fact NDA Government is directly transferring ₹6000/- per annum to every farmer and these funds are used for the same.

On the other hand, while the infrastructure cess is not shared with the state governments it is the state governments which gets hugely benefited from the national highway projects for which the infra cess is utilised.

What PM Modi Has Done For Telangana

KTR has the habit of complaining against the Infra cess while it is the state of Telangana which got hugely benefited since 2015 from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH). Following are some of the benefits which the state of Telangana received:

• National Highways Project increased by 99% in Telangana after Modi became PM
• 2525 kms of state highways have been converted into National Highways (NH) by MORTH thereby making Telangana one of the best states in terms of connectivity. We also know the pain of commuting in a state highway and pleasure of commuting in NH
• Under the PM Gati Shakti 5 corridors costing ₹22,706 crores have been included as high impact projects in Telangana
• ₹31,624 crores of work have already been sanctioned for Telangana
• ₹32,755 crores worth Regional Ring Road (RRR) have already been sanctioned. It is a 6 lane 330-Kilometer-long road which connects Hyderabad with other districts

What The Dravidian Stockists Will Never Tell You

If these are few development projects for Telangana the state of Tamil Nadu has been rewarded with several projects and some of them are:

• Modi Government has already spent ₹28,846 crores on building highways in Tamil Nadu
• ₹91,750 crores are sanctioned of which ₹39,863 crores worth of projects are already awarded
• 8 state highways are being upgraded to National Highways
• ₹3000 crores worth East Coast Road (ECR) project is sanctioned
• Chennai Port-Maduravoyal double decker worth ₹5965 crores were sanctioned by National Highways Authority of India on October 2021 (It is to be noted that this project was proposed during UPA 2 Government & foundation stone was laid by Former PM Manmohan Singh in 2009 but was later abandoned)
• Under PM Gati Shakti program a new defence corridor is coming to Tamil Nadu
• Under Bharatmala Pariyojana a Multi Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) is being developed at Mappedu near Chennai in partnership with Chennai Port Trust and Govt of Tamil Nadu
• Bengaluru-Chennai expressway & Chennai-Salem expressway projects are approved
• Project in VOC Port worth ₹7500 crores are implemented under PM Gati Shakti
• $130 Billion (₹9,75,000 crores) worth investments are made under Sagarmala Program which would unlock the potential of waterways. Tamil Nadu would be the major beneficiary of this project
• Under Sagarmala Program 6 mega ports are being constructed across the country and out of the 6 mega ports 2 of them are from Tamil Nadu which are Sirkazhi (Techo Economic Feasibility Report is under preparation) and at Kanyakumari where a major transhipment port is being built. Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was formed for this purpose in March 2019
• In fact, of the 6 mega ports 2 are from Tamil Nadu and 1 each at West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha and Karnataka. This fact busts the fake news that Modi Government only favours BJP ruled states.

Conclusion

The Infrastructure Cess is being utilised to make India a powerful economic super power which is self-reliant and progress is happening across the country. Parties like DMK & TRS are making irresponsible and irrelevant statements to vent their frustrations and it is sad to see that these statements are emanating from so called educated ministers. National Highways are constructed by Central Government and hence there is no need to share the Infrastructure & Agriculture Cess with state governments.

While the Modi Government can say with 100% transparency on the investments made by using the cess can the opposition ruled state governments share the value addition that they are bringing to the citizens by charging exorbitant value added taxes and also on the utilisation of VAT in developing their states.

Instead of complaining the opposition ruled states must heed to the advice given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by reducing the VAT and ease the burden of citizens.

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The Narendra Modi government has decided to reduce Central Excise Duty on Petrol & Diesel by ₹5 and ₹10 respectively.

The price reduction will be effective from tomorrow.

“The reduction in excise duty on diesel will be double that of petrol. The Indian farmers have, through their hard work, kept the economic growth momentum going even during the lockdown phase and the massive reduction in excise on diesel will come as a boost to the farmers during the upcoming Rabi season,” stated the government statement.

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Sri Lanka which is going through its worst foreign exchange crisis has asked India for a $500 million credit line from India to pay for its crude oil purchase.

The country’s state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) owes about $3.3 billion to its government banks, namely: People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon.

Sri Lanka’s energy minister Udaya Gammanpila has given his nation a stark reminder that the current availability of fuel in the island nation can be guaranteed only until January 2022.

“We are currently engaged with the Indian High Commission here to obtain the facility (USD 500 million credit line) under the India-Sri Lanka economic partnership arrangement,” Sumith Wijesinghe, Chairman of the CPC, was quoted by the Financial Express.

If the negotiations are complete, the monies will be utilised for purchasing their requirements for petrol and diesel and Finance Secretary S R Attygalle informed that the energy secretaries of India and Sri Lanka are slated to sign an agreement for the loan soon.

To ensure there is no panic, the Lankan government has put a stop to the expected retail price hike of fuel though they increased the prices of cooking gas and other essentials last week.

It must be noted that Sri Lanka asked India for a line of credit and not China because of the latter’s predatory financial practice with the island nation in massive debt.

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Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has emphasized on the adoption of alternative fuels which will be import substitute, cost-effective, pollution-free, and indigenous and discouraged the use of petrol or diesel as a fuel.

Addressing ‘Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA)’ Conference on ‘Alternative fuel- Road ahead’ he said that biggest benefit of Bio- ethanol as alternative fuel is that it is a clean fuel with very low greenhouse gas emissions. He said the additional income that is generated is directly diverted to the farmers, which empowers the rural and backward economy.

Minister Gadkari said looking at the ethanol production capacity and its adoptability as a fuel, the government has redesigned and launched the E-20 fuel program which will ensure the use of bio-ethanol in 20% blend with Petrol by 2025 in India. He said government has also calculated that to achieve 20% ethanol blending, the country will require around 10 billion litres of ethanol by 2025. He said currently, the sugar industry contributes to 90% of ethanol demand as a blended fuel in the country.

Minister Gadkari said he keeps on doing research to find ways to increase ethanol production with available resources and one such proposal is to add 15% to 20% sugar into B-Heavy Molasses. He said this will have multiple benefits as it will utilise an excess stock of around 45 to 60 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Sugar and will improve the ethanol recovery by 30% due to better quality of raw material.

On similar lines, the Minister said production of C-Heavy Molasses from sugar can be discouraged which will standardise the production of B-Heavy Molasses and will permanently lead to lesser production of sugar by 1.5% per Metric Tonne of Sugarcane.

Nitin Gadkari said all of these steps will  increase the production of ethanol and can lead to a scenario where excess availability of ethanol in one state can be transported to ethanol-deficient states such as the North-East and Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh. He said Bio-ethanol can also be a sustainable fuel for aviation purpose. as it can provide 80% savings on greenhouse gas emissions and can be blended up to 50% with conventional jet fuels without any modification. He said It is already been tested and approved by the Indian air force. He said with the rollout of flex-fuel vehicles on 100% bio-ethanol, the demand for ethanol will immediately jump by 4 to 5 times.

(Published from PIB)

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The MK-Stalin led DMK government in Tamil Nadu has expressed its opposition to bring petroleum products under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

On Friday (September 17), the Tamil Nadu government opposed the idea of bringing fuels under the goods and services tax (GST) by saying the petrol and diesel remain one of the last vestiges of a state’s right to manage its own revenue.

“We are of the general opinion that the State taxation of petrol and diesel remains one of the last vestiges of any state’s right to manage their own revenues, since the advent of GST stripped away most of the small range of rights originally written to the Constitution. We are reluctant to give up any of these few remaining rights and so are fundamentally opposed to bringing these products into the ambit of GST,” the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan said.

However, CM Stalin when he was Leader of Opposition in 2018 had demanded that petrol and diesel be brought under GST.

I strongly condemn frequent price hike of petrol and Diesel that terribly affects the common man. I urge the govt to revert back the decision and bring petro products under GST to ease the burden of common people. #petrolpricehike

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) April 4, 2018

This tweet has has come to haunt the DMK government back which is a direct contradiction of the current position it has taken.

The AIADMK questioned the DMK government’s opposition to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying it was contrary to the ruling party’s persistent demands for covering fuel under the GST ambit earlier, when it was in the opposition.

“DMK is known for taking one stand while in the opposition and another when in power, in issues like regional autonomy, NEET cancellation and inter-state river disputes,”  AIADMK Coordinator O. Panneerselvam said in a party statement.

BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai said that it was a sad state of affairs as bringing petrol and diesel under GST would benefit the public a lot.

As we have said earlier, @arivalayam govt has opposed bringing petrol & diesel under GST in yday’s GST council meeting.

Common people would have benefited hugely. While in opposition, they wanted petroleum under GST and as a ruling party, they don’t want it.

Sad! pic.twitter.com/Mm1QDgTMdP

— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) September 18, 2021

BJP Tamil Nadu Spokesperson SG Suryah called out the U-turn by the DMK as a party with no morals for contradicting its own positions.

அந்தர்பல்டி மு.க.ஸ்டாலின் மற்றும் தி.மு.க-வின் புதிய பல்டி. தேர்தலுக்கு முன் பெட்ரோல், டீசலை #GST வரம்புக்குள் கொண்டு வர வேண்டும் என்றனர். இப்போது #மோடி அரசு அதற்கு வழிவகை செய்தால் கடுமையாக எதிர்க்கின்றனர். குறைந்தபட்ச அறம் இல்லாத கேடுகெட்ட தி.மு.க தலைமையிலான தமிழக அரசு. pic.twitter.com/jAUlLdlCaL

— Dr.SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) September 18, 2021

Here are some of the reactions from netizens.

U turn https://t.co/sVVko1Yz9y

— திராவிட குண்டன் (@draavidagundan) September 18, 2021

https://twitter.com/Kesavaprakash/status/1439179785104732166

Swallowed #Fevicol now ! Election promises gone with the Wind! https://t.co/AjLaCkh0gj

— Sangitha Varier (@VarierSangitha) September 18, 2021

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The price of jet fuel was hiked by a steep 6.7 per cent on Saturday, reversing the price cuts of last month. An increase in petrol and diesel prices is also likely, as international prices are on the upside.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was increased by ₹3,885 per kilolitre (kl), or 6.7 per cent, to ₹61,690.28 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Rates vary from state to state depending on incidence of local taxes.

The increase in price comes after two rounds of reduction last month. Prices were cut by 3 per cent on April 1 and then again by 1 per cent, or ₹568.88 per kl, on April 16.

Meanwhile, petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for the 16th day on Saturday, but oil company officials indicated an increase in rates in the near term.

Despite the concerns about rising Covid-19 cases in India denting fuel demand, crude oil prices in the international market continue to rise on account of strong US demand recovery and a weak dollar.

“Prices have been on a continuous uptrend for last 4 days (since April 27),” an official said, adding Dubai crude oil price has risen $2.91 per barrel.

It is expected that the crude oil prices in the international market will remain firm in the near future, exerting upward pressure, officials said.

Indian state-owned fuel retailers, IOC, BPCL and HPCL, who are supposed to revise rates daily based on input cost, froze rates after a marginal reduction in prices on April 15. This came amid the elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry and Kerala peaked.

Petrol now costs ₹90.40 per litre in Delhi, while a litre of diesel comes for ₹80.73.

The April 15 cut of 16 paise a litre on petrol and 14 paise on diesel was the fourth reduction since March 24. In four reductions since March 24, petrol price was cut by 67 paise and diesel by 74 paise.

This reduction compared with a ₹21.58 per litre increase in the price of petrol since the government raised excise duty in March last year. Diesel prices had increased by ₹19.18 a litre.

While petrol and diesel prices are revised on a daily basis, ATF rates are revised on the 1st and 16th of every month.

Central and state taxes make up for 60 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54 per cent of that of diesel. The union government levies ₹32.90 per litre of excise duty on petrol and ₹31.80 on diesel.

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Representational Photograph | Credits: Bioenergy International

The National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 inter alia allows the use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol, with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC).

The NBCC in its meetings held on 20 April, 2020 and 09 November, 2020 allowed the production of ethanol from surplus rice and maize available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for blending with petrol under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.

Based on the offers received in 2020-21, Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) allocated 41.91 crore litre of ethanol to be procured from surplus rice, maize and damaged food grains unfit for human consumption. Accordingg to information available with the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), the ethanol yield from one tonne of maize and rice is 380 and 450 litres, respectively. Thus, to produce 100 litres of ethanol, about 2.22 quintals of rice or about 2.63 quintals of maize is required to be used.

The cost of production of ethanol from any feedstock including rice or maize depends upon a number of factors, such as quality of feedstock, efficiency of plant, cost of other inputs, etc. This bio-ethanol produced from these feedstock is being used by OMCs for blending in petrol under the EBP Programme.

The National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 aims to achieve the goals by (a) reinforcing ongoing ethanol/bio-diesel supplies through increasing domestic production, (b) setting up second-generation (2G) bio-refineries, (c) development of new feedstock for biofuels from cellulosic and lignocelluloses route including petrochemical route, (d) development of new technologies for conversion to biofuels, (e) creating suitable environment for biofuels and its integration with the main fuels. Due to the above policy initiatives taken by the Government, ethanol procurement increased from 38 crore litre in 2013-14 to 173.03 crore litre in 2019-20.

(Published from PIB)

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Unlike usual wedding gifts, a newlywed couple in Salem got the surprise of their lives when a relative gave them petrol as a wedding gift. The wedding ceremony of Mohammad Rahbathin and Jabsoom Nazia took place in the Salem Fort area. Relatives and friends who came to the wedding greeted the bride and groom by giving them various gift items.

At this point, Mohammad Qasim drew everyone’s attention by giving the bride and groom 5 liters of petrol in a can as a wedding gift.

Mohammad Qasim said that petrol was given as a wedding gift to the bride and groom as the price of daily essential petrol was rising day by day, and that he wanted to give them a gift that was valuable as well as useful.

In a similar incident that happened in Chennai, the image of the friends bringing an LPG cylinder, a gallon bottle of petrol, and garlands of onions for the bride and the groom, gifting them on the wedding stage and getting their picture clicked became viral. The newly married couple of Karthik and Saranya can be seen smiling and enjoying this great turn on a wedding day gift.

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In the Budget 2021 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a new ‘Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess’ (AIDC) has been brought in to provide for more funds that will go towards strengthening the agricultural infrastructure in the country by creation of cold storages, strengthening the supply chain etc.

The cess however is not uniform and varies for different products. It will be levied on items like petrol, diesel, crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil, alcohol, gold, silver, apples, peas, etc.

On alcoholic beverages, the cess will be levied at 100% as it is a luxury item. Gold and silver bars will attract 2.5%, however, the customs duty on both the metals has been brought down by 5% thus not affecting the end user.

Though the cess is being levied on fuels like petrol and diesel, the Central Government is bringing down the Basic Excise Duty and Special Additional Excise Duty commensurately. To make up for the cess, basic excise duty on petrol has been revised to ₹1.4 per litre from ₹2.98 per litre and on diesel from ₹4.83 per litre to ₹1.8 per litre.

So, there is no need for people to worry about a rise in fuel price rise because of the new AIDC.

The intention of the government is to levy this AIDC on items such that it would have not have a major impact on a huge section of the population

What the AIDC does is to levy a tax on items are primarily used extensively by affluent sections and redistribute that money to those in need especially those dependent on agriculture.

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