Vehicles line up at a fuel station near Dimapur‘s West Police Station following the state government’s tax-hike announcement on November 11. (Morung Photo)
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 12 (MExN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has condemned the Nagaland Government’s decision to enhance the tax levied on petrol and diesel prices as ‘cruel.’
The NPF press bureau in a press note claimed that when the COVID-19 cess was “rejected by the Naga public and subsequently withdrawn,” the government “has come up with a new formula to pump money from the public.”
The opposition termed this as a “cruel decision because every single citizen is reeling under the economic implosion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and it exposes the PDA Government’s inhumanity and utter disregard for public welfare yet again.”
It said that the tax increase on petrol and diesel is a “frontal assault on the right of the people to food and shelter, the two most basic needs for survival because it has a direct and escalating effect on the cost of essential commodities and construction materials.”
“The NPF is stupefied that this sadistic decision comes at a time when the public is still valiantly struggling to cope with the cost of commodities that skyrocketed with the earlier increase in cess on petroleum products and is yet to normalize even after the rollback of the infamous cess,” it added.
The NPF said that this decision will “severely handicap the buying-power of a consumerist society whose economic capacity is already severely impacted by the pandemic.”
“This will adversely affect the welfare and livelihood of thousands of citizens, especially the daily-wage earner, the private sector entrepreneur and employee, the small scale businessman etc, which in turn will have a ripple effect on their dependents, the rural economy and the whole of Nagaland economy considering how close-knit and inter-dependent the Naga society is,” it added.
The NPF urged the State Government to immediately roll back the decision to increase taxation on petrol and diesel before it becomes too late to control its impact on a beleaguered and stressed society.
