After petrol and diesel prices were hiked on Monday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government saying that right after Karnataka finished voting for its Assembly elections, the fuel prices have risen to a “4 year high”.

While a news report, Rahul Gandhi in his tweet said, “Karnataka finishes voting, FUEL prices rise to a 4 yr. high!. The Key Principle of Modinomics: fool as many people as you can, as often as you can”.

Karnataka finishes voting, FUEL prices rise to a 4 yr. high!

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The Key Principle of Modinomics: fool as many people as you can, as often as you can. #PeTrolledhttps://t.co/TdRP20rfAb

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 14, 2018

After a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus, petrol price was hiked on Monday by 17 paise a litre and diesel by 21 paise as PSU oil firms began passing on the spike witnessed in international rates to consumers.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 74.80 per litre from Rs 74.63 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 66.14 a litre from Rs 65.93, according to a price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies.

With this, diesel prices have touched a record high, while petrol is at a 56-month peak.

Petrol and diesel prices were last revised on April 24 when they were hiked by 13 paise each. But prices were frozen thereafter. This despite benchmark international rate for petrol going up from $78.84 per barrel, which was used for raising the price to Rs 74.63 a litre on April 24, to $82.98 now, according to sources privy to fuel pricing methodology.

The benchmark international diesel rates during this period have climbed from $84.68 per barrel to $88.63. Also, the rupee has weakened to Rs 67 per US dollar from Rs 66.62, making imports costlier.

The government had between November 2014 and January 2016 raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 per litre to take away gains arising from plummeting global oil prices. This led to its excise mop up more than doubling to Rs 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15.

The central government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in October 2017, when petrol price reached Rs 70.88 per litre in Delhi and diesel Rs 59.14. Because of the reduction in excise duty, diesel prices had on October 4, 2017, come down to Rs 56.89 per litre and petrol to Rs 68.38 per litre.

Earlier in April, Rahul Gandhi had tweeted an old edited video in which PM Modi is asking people about the petrol prices.

In the video, PM Modi claims that the price of petrol has been reduced and the clip has been edited to add people laughing followed by PM Modi’s statement. The clip of Bollywood actor Salman Khan laughing uncontrollably is added to the video when the Prime Minister talks about savings.

Also read | PeTrolled: Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Modi over soaring petrol price

Along with the video, Gandhi, in a tweet with #PeTrolled, wrote, “The poor & the middle class bear the brunt of rising fuel prices. In this video, our PM is quite obviously talking about some other country.”