In Series Of Tweets ,P Chidambaram Slams Nirmala Sitharaman For Oil Bond Statements, Terms It Astonishing, And Incredible Ignorance

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Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram lashed in his series of tweets has slammed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on her oil bonds comment.

His reaction came after  finance minister ruled out any cut in excise duty on fuel, as of now, since the previous UPA government had reduced fuel prices by issuing oil bonds of Rs 1.44 lakh crore , terming her statement “astonishing” and “incredible ignorance”.

Chidambaram in a tweet wrote, “The Finance Minister’s statement that servicing oil bonds stands in the way of giving relief on petrol and diesel prices is astonishing. At best the statement is incredible ignorance; at the worst it is motivated malignity.”

He said that if the UPA government wanted to subsidise fuel prices, it had the choice of finding the money by borrowing directly or asking the oil companies to borrow.

“In either case, servicing the loan (interest) would be the responsibility of the Central government,” he said.

“Every analyst and every lender knew that oil companies borrowed as a surrogate of the central government and mentally added the borrowing to the fiscal deficit.”

In another tweet, Chidambaram said: “Having profited several times over through exorbitant taxes and cesses on fuel, the NDA has no right to comment on the fuel subsidy. The people know that UPA gave them relief and the NDA is crushing them through oppressive taxes and cesses.”