Mumbai Police serve notice to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena

Ahead of the Bharat Bandh in Mumbai the Police on Sundayserved a notice to theMaharashtra Navnirman Sena party workers under section 149 stating that the party will be held responsibleif any law and order situation arises.

The Congress has called for a Bharat Bandh on Monday over the high taxes imposed by the government on fuel prices.

The bandh will be supported byNationalist Congress Party (NCP),Samajwadi Party (SP) and the DMK.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has also extended its support to the Bandh and said that it will participate in the opposition's strike against the government.

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), however, has refused to participate in the strike.

In a letter issued by the MNS, the party wrote, "The petrol and diesel prices have skyrocketed and due to this, the common man is in deep anguish".

" Though the fuel prices are linked to the global markets, the central and state governments over and above that, have imposed heavy taxes on it. The country's policies cannot be based on the whims and fancies of one person. The demonetisation step was a huge blunder and its repercussions plummeted our economy into our economy into a precarious state. To cover this up, heavy taxes are being imposed on fuel, as an effort to bring back the economic conditions to normalcy", it added.

Fuel prices in the country continued to go up on Sunday.

While the prices of Petrol rose to Rs 80.50 a litre in Delhi, diesel prices increased to Rs 72.61a litre on Sunday.

In Mumbai, a litre of petrol was selling at Rs.87.89 and diesel at Rs 77.09 a litre.

Since mid-August, petrol prices have risen by Rs 3.24 a litre and diesel by Rs 3.74 a litre as the rupee touched a record low against the dollar, making imports costlier.

The Centre currently levies an excise duty of Rs 19.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. On top of this, states levy value-added tax (VAT).

Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12% on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26% on diesel. Delhi charges a VAT of 27% on petrol and 17.24% on diesel.

The central government had raised the excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine installments between November 2014 and January 2016. The duty was reduced just once in October last year, by Rs 2 a litre.

(With inputs from agencies)