Crude oil crash: Why govt not buying?, asks Cong

New Delhi, Apr 21, The Congress on Tuesday questioned the Central government for not buying crude oil at a time when its prices almost touched zero and failing to pass the benefits to the consumers.
“Crude oil prices went down unexpectedly and historically yesterday. Such situation occurred due to non-purchase of crude oil in America. India is the tenth largest oil importer from the US after it was banned from importing oil from Iran. Why did we refuse to buy oil when the price has fallen so low internationally? While we also have storage capacity”, asked Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera.
The Congress spokesperson was responding to the unexpected crash in West Texas Intermediate, the US crude benchmark, which dropped below zero for the first time in history.
Describing the situation, he said that because of the pandemic, continuous production and relatively lack of storage capacity is the reason for this current problem.
“On one hand, the storage capacity has fallen short with the seller and on the other hand you cannot stop the production. Manufacturer can reduce production a little, not too much, because they also have to suffer many consequences”, he said.
“We have adequate storage capacity. Our question is that when the international price has decreased so much, less than zero, then why did we refuse to buy?”, he asked.
He also said that the government has increased the central excise duty on oil 12 times in last six years that has earned Rs 20 lakh crore.
“Why has the benefit not been passed on to the consumers? Is the government fulfilling its obligation by not passing on this benefit to the consumers”, Mr Khera charged and added, “the relief of fallen oil prices, which the government is getting, is not giving it to the common consumers, farmers and transporters, is this government fulfilling its responsibility?”