People's Democracy

Hike in Petrol Price Evokes Protests

THE recent hike in the price of petrol, the ninth time in just one year, has angered the people and they are staging militant protests in every part of the country. The CPI(M) and the mass organisations led by it are in the forefront against this burden that threatens to push the rate of inflation further up.

KERALA

With strong protest mounting up in the state of Kerala against the recent hefty hike in petroleum prices, the Left and Democratic Front (LDF) moved to organise demonstrations in front of the central government offices on May 18.

The motor workers also conducted a dawn to dusk strike on May 20 to protest the hike.

A meeting of Joint Coordination Committee of motor workers’ unions, held in Kozhikode immediately after the hike was announced, decided to organise a statewide strike on the day. The INTUC, as a part of the Joint Coordination Committee, also announced that it would participate in the strike. Leaders of the CITU, AITUC, BMS, INTUC and the Muslim League affiliated STU attended the meeting which was presided over by the BMS leader, K Gangadharan. They urged the people to avoid any journey on May 20 and requested the two-wheeler riders to join the strike.

ANDHRA PRADESH

The people of Andhra Pradesh, too, flared up over the announcement of a rise in the petrol price. They expressed their severe anger by burning the effigies of the central government that had in a dubious way hiked the price immediately after the assembly elections in four states and one union territory were ended. These protest programmes took place under the leadership of the Left parties, TDP and the YSR Congress party throughout the state. Sit-outs and road blockades were organised, condemning the attitude of the central government which is, by raising the prices of petroleum products, constantly stoking the fire of inflation. They all demanded for withdrawal of the hike. They also demanded that the state government should at least reduce the quantum of the value added tax (VAT) on petroleum, in order to bring down a little the severe burden petroleum price hike would bring upon the people. Leaders and cadre of all the opposition parties participated in the protest programmes at various places in the state.

The CPI(M), Forward Bloc, RSP, SUCI(C), MCPI(U), and other Left parties have criticised the central government that it has imposed further burdens on the common man including the middle classes at a time when the prices of all the basic necessities were skyrocketing. Demanding immediate withdrawal of the petrol price hike that was announced, these political parties burned the effigy of the central government at the RTC Crossroads in Hyderabad, the state capital. CPI(M) state secretary B V Raghavulu, speaking on this occasion, told that the petrol price which was Rs 50 per litre in June 2010 has now reached up to Rs 70. By thus allowing the petrol price to rise by Rs 20 within a year and also the prices other petroleum products to go up, the government has imposed severe burdens on the people, Raghavulu criticised. Because of this burden, each and every person using a motorbike will have to shoulder up to rupees 500-600 additionally per month, he added. The impact of this petrolprice rise would be there on the transport of the foodgrains and other basic necessities, he told. He condemned the petroleum price rise as an atrocious act. He lambasted the central government for having lifted the regulations on the prices of petroleum products in the name of reforms. He commented that it is a tragedy that the government has shrugged off its responsibilities and has assigned the right of raising the petroleum prices to the oil companies. It is a surprising thing that the petroleum prices in our country are being raised, even when the crude oil prices in the international market are coming down, he observed. At the same time Raghavulu also criticised the state government of Andhra Pradesh that is now very happy because it will get an additional income of Rs 200 crore due to the petrol price rise. He also reminded that already the state of AP has the highest sales tax rate, i.e. 33 per cent, on petrol. If the state government has any concern for the people, it should reduce this sales tax, Raghavulu demanded. He condemned as shameful the state government’s act of making money out of petroleum products’ prices. He urged upon the people to make a success of the all-India level call given by the Left parties for agitations in opposition to the petroleum price rise.

CPI(M) state secretariat members Sarampally Mallareddy, Y Venkateshwararao and S Veerayya, SUCI(C) leader Murahari; Thandrakumar of the MCPI(U); RSP state secretary Janakiramulu and Forward Bloc state secretary Muralidhar Deshpande,also participated in this action.

DELHI

On May 16, Delhi state committee of the CPI(M) organised a protest demonstration at Parliament against the hike in petrol price. Hundreds of workers marched from Jantar Mantar to Parliament House, shouting slogans against the hike of Rs 5 per litre in petrol price.

The demonstration was addressed by Sudha Sundararaman (general secretary, AIDWA), Dipankar Mukherjee (secretary, CITU) and PMS Grewal (secretary, CPI(M) Delhi state committee). Sudha Sundararaman attacked the UPA government for the massive hike in the price of petrol. This was in keeping with the UPA’s anti-people policies and showed its complicity in fuelling the price rise, she observed.

Dipankar Mukherjee said the government was directly responsible for increases in the petrol prices. He reiterated the demand for restructuring the tax structure on petroleum products and ending the deregulation of petroleum prices. He said the government has been giving more than 4 lakh crores in tax concessions to corporate houses every year but is not willing to provide even minimum relief to the common people.

PMS Grewal attacked the anti-people stances of the government and said that a further hike in petrol prices, along with hikes in diesel and LPG prices, is on the cards. He urged for protest demonstrations in different areas of Delhi against this hike. A sustained struggle is required in order to bring this anti-people regime to its knees, he said, reminding it of the struggles wages by the working people of this country in the recent past.

HARYANA

On the same day, a protest demonstration was organised by the CPI(M)’s Haryana state unit against the steep hike of Rs 5 per litre in petrol price. Protesters assembled in the Maansarovar Park before a procession was taken out up to the mini-secretariat. While addressing the workers, CITU state general secretary Surender Singh denounced the UPA government for cheating the people by keeping the steep hike of petrol prices deliberately pending in view of the then ongoing assembly elections.

CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh accused the central government of targeting the livelihood of ordinary people through policies that facilitate the oil companies to reap super profits by mercilessly fleecing the consumers. He rejected the oft-repeated notion that petroleum products were greatly subsidised and clarified that it was actually the other way round, as it is the consumers who are subsidising the government by paying exorbitant taxes and custom duties which account for a major share of the total cost of petroleum products.

The CPI(M) state committee also sent a memorandum to the prime minister through the city magistrate, demanding that his government must roll back the enhancement in the petrol rates and expressing opposition to the proposed hike in diesel and LPG prices.

CITU DENOUNCES HIKE

Through a statement issued from New Delhi on May 15, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said that, soon after as the assembly elections in four states and Puducherry were over, the UPA government at the centre came out in its true colours. No sooner than the election results are declared, the government announced the steepest ever price hike for petrol — Rs 5 per litre. This is the ninth hike in the price of petrol in the span of the last nine months, the CITU said.

The CITU condemned the recent hike in petrol price as an utterly irresponsible action by a government that is totally insensitive to the miseries of aam admi owing to the continuously rising food inflation. “Such a steep rise in petrol price is going to have a cascading effect on the already rising prices of the essential commodities, making life of the poor more miserable,” the CITU said.

The government’s plea that it was a rise in the price of crude in the international market to 113.7 dollars per barrel which necessitated the  hiking in the petrol price is, according to the CITU, totally unfounded. The fact is that as at least 50 per cent of the domestic petrol price is the tax component going to government exchequer. In itself, the rupee equivalent of the crude rice in the international market, along with the refining cost, is much less than what is being charged for petrol in the domestic market. Therefore, the CITU said that taking the plea of a rise in international prices of crude to justify the price hike in domestic market is nothing but an act of deception.

In view of this reality, the CITU has demanded that the government roll back the hike in petrol price and reduce the tax burden (both excise and customs duties) on crude and petroleum products to a rational level.

The CITU has asked all its affiliate unions in particular and working class in general to unitedly protest against the frequent hikes in the price of petrol, which is an anti-people decision of the UPA government that wants to fleece the common people. The CITU has decided to organise mass demonstrations in the workplaces, joint rallies, dharnas etc for the purpose.