Kejriwal Claims E20 Petrol Can Be Sold at ₹70, Urges Government to Cut Prices
Arvind Kejriwal, national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Thursday stated that based on current international crude oil prices, the government can sell E20 petrol at ₹70 per litre and non-E20 petrol at ₹82 per litre. He urged the central government to reduce fuel prices to these levels to provide relief to the common public from inflation.
Speaking at a press conference, Kejriwal argued that oil companies have earned significant profits over the past few years and should use those profits to offset any losses incurred during recent geopolitical tensions. He said, “The government may argue, as Union Minister Hardeep Puri has said, that oil companies suffered losses during the war in the Middle East and need to recover them. This argument is completely wrong.”
Kejriwal further claimed that since 2014, international crude oil prices have fallen six times, but the government did not reduce petrol prices during those periods. He questioned, “During those times, 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?”
Citing reports that oil companies made a profit of ₹77,000 crore last year, Kejriwal said that they had been making bumper profits for three to four years. He asserted, “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.”
The AAP leader’s remarks come as fuel prices remain a key political issue, with opposition parties frequently criticising the government’s pricing policies. The central government has previously defended fuel prices, citing global crude oil price volatility and the need to recover past losses incurred by oil marketing companies.
