Congress president Sonia Gandhi has demanded a rollback of the “insensitive” fuel price hikes in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wondering how a government could think of profiteering at the expense of the people amid a crisis.

“I see no logic in why the government would even consider such a price increase at a time when the economic impact of Covid-19 is depriving millions of jobs and livelihood, devastating business big and small, rapidly eroding the income of the middle class, even as farmers are struggling to sow the crop for the kharif season,” she wrote.

“Given that the international price of crude oil has fallen by approximately 9 per cent over the last week (coming after a collapse of crude oil prices over the last few months), the government is doing nothing short of profiteering off its people — when they are down and out.”

Rahul Gandhi, who has censured the government for taxing consumers to fill its coffers instead of passing on to them the benefits of the low international crude prices over the past few years, echoed Sonia.

“Prime Minister Modi, these tragic times dictate putting money directly in the hands of middle class and poor. Stop profiteering from their misery,” Rahul tweeted on Tuesday.

Sonia said in her letter: “I am deeply distressed that in these exceedingly difficult times since the beginning of March, the government has taken the wholly insensitive decision to increase petrol and diesel prices on no less than 10 separate occasions.

“Your government is seeking to earn an additional revenue of nearly Rs 260,000 crore by these ill-advised hikes in excise duty and increases in (petrol and diesel prices). As it is, people across the board are facing unimaginable hardships, what to say of widespread fear and insecurity.

“These price increases are saddling our people with an additional burden of this enormous magnitude that is neither justified nor appropriate. It is the duty and responsibility of the government to alleviate suffering, not put the people to still greater hardship.”

Sonia underlined that the government’s revenues had been massively enriched by the cumulative increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel (by an additional Rs 23.78 per litre on petrol and Rs 28.37 on diesel).

“This translates into a 258 per cent increase in excise on petrol and 820 per cent hike in excise duty on diesel, yielding in these six years a staggering Rs 1,800,000 crore from excise collection on petrol and diesel alone. If ever there was a time to deploy these resources in the service of the people, it is now,” she said.

Sonia asked the Prime Minister to roll the hikes back and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to citizens.

“If you wish for them to be ‘self-reliant’ then do not place financial fetters on their ability to move forward. And I am once again obliged to repeat what I have said before: please use the government’s resources to put money directly into the hands of those who need it in this time of severe hardship.”