Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said, it is wrong to say that the consumers have not benefited from fall in international oil prices. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Mr Pradhan said in the past one and a half years, petrol price has been reduced 20 times and diesel 16 times. Meanwhile the Congress party is alleging that the government is not passing on the benefit to people despite sharp decline in the crude oil prices internationally. Yesterday the government hiked the excise duty on petrol by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 1 rupee 17 paise per litre to garner an additional 2,500 crore rupees to meet budgetary targets. Oil prices, which were hovering around 95 to 105 dollars in January 2014, began declining around October last year and have been on a downward spiral since then. Rates of crude oil have hit 11-year low of less than 35 dollars per barrel.