Pralhad Joshi accuses Karnataka government of burdening people with price hike

Education, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Pralhad Joshi has accused the Congress government in Karnataka of burdening people by repeatedly increasing prices.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Joshi alleged that while the Congress government made a strong claim that it was helping people through five guarantee schemes, it was actually taking away their benefits through frequent hikes.

“It’s giving with one hand and cutting into pockets with the other,” he scoffed.

The Union minister alleged that the government has hiked prices of milk, petrol, diesel, bus fare, electricity, water and liquor at regular intervals for the past three years, besides various taxes and charges. “Petrol and diesel prices have increased three times and bus fares have increased twice,” he said, adding that the government had increased water prices by 10%, sewage by 25%, liquor prices by 20% and license fees by 50%.

He claimed that the hike in various taxes and fees is expected to generate an additional annual revenue of ₹60,000 crore to the government. The projected revenue included ₹6,000 crore from petrol and diesel price hikes, ₹1,000 crore from bus fare revisions, ₹3,712 crore from vehicle registration charges, ₹450 crore from metro fares and ₹5,000 crore from property benchmark revisions.

Questioning the Centre’s criticism of the state government on inflation, Mr Joshi alleged that the state was collecting additional revenue by imposing a financial burden on the people. He also disputed the government’s claim that the increase in milk prices would benefit farmers, arguing that the benefits would not accrue to them.

SIR and ethanol blending

Mr. Joshi said that special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is not a new exercise and has been done for decades, with technology now facilitating the process. He accused the Congress of spreading misinformation about the Election Commission’s procedures and creating confusion among voters.

He argued that the Congress had lost elections in several states even before the SIR exercise and questioned its attempts to attribute electoral defeats to the revision process.

On allegations of excessive blending of ethanol in petrol, Mr Joshi said the claim that ethanol constitutes 31% of petrol is baseless. He said the prevailing policy aimed for 20% blending and cited test results which claimed 11 of 14 published samples were within the prescribed limits.

He said ethanol blending would benefit sugarcane farmers and reduce dependence on imported oil. The revenue generated by the sugar mills from the sale of ethanol should go to the farmers, he added.

Published – 07 Nov 2026 20:49 IST