Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rollback the hike in fuel prices, saying the government-s decision to increase them during the coronavirus crisis is "wholly insensitive" and "ill-advised". Given that the international price of crude oil has fallen by approximately nine per cent over the last week, the government is doing nothing short of "profiteering off its people" when they are down and out, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the 10th day in a row on Tuesday. While the price of petrol has gone up cumulatively by Rs 5.47 per litre, price of diesel has increased by Rs 5.8 per litre. "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 ten separate occasions," Gandhi said in her letter. She accused the government of earning an additional revenue of nearly Rs 2.6 lakh crore through these "ill-advised" hikes in excise duty and increase in prices of petrol and diesel.