The Hindu Business Line : Left suggests ways to minimise impact of petrol price hike

THE Left parties today took up the issue of probable increase in petrol price hike with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and suggested ways of minimising the impact of such hike on the common man.

The General Secretary of the CPI(M), Mr Prakash Karat, and Polit Bureau member, Mr Sitaram Yechury, met Dr Singh and made five suggestions to keep oil prices under check.

Later, the two CPI(M) leaders met the leaders of other Left parties and it was decided that they would go for mass agitation if the Government does not consider their suggestions.

``Government should seriously consider our suggestions. If despite these suggestions, the prices are increased, we will launch protest action,'' Mr Yechury and the CPI General Secretary, Mr A.B. Bardhan, said after the meeting.

The Left leaders suggested the Government should suspend the road cess of Rs 2 per litre of petrol for a year as this would neutralise the impact on the consumer.

They also suggested that the Government bear the burden of the hike in petrol and diesel prices due to the post-Budget changes in the excise duty structure on petro products.

Another suggestion was that the public sector oil companies that enjoy a virtually monopoly should not spend lavishly on advertising.

The Left leaders also said that under-recovery by oil PSUs should not be the basis of calculation of petro prices. Explaining this point, sources in the Left parties said that though oil companies were not recovering the full amount on their sales, they were not running into losses. Only their profits would come down but they would still remain profitable. Therefore, under-recoveries should not be basis of calculating oil prices, they said.

They also suggested that since almost 90 per cent of the crude was imported, the international parity on prices should not be imposed on petrol. If international import parity was to be applied, it should be done on crude and not on petro products, they said.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page