People's Democracy

Roll Back This Hike

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on September on September 14, 2012.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the unprecedented hike in the price of diesel and the limiting of six cooking gas cylinders per family per year. The hike in the price of diesel will have a cascading inflationary impact imposing greater burdens on the already suffering people. Agricultural sector and farmers will particularly suffer. The limiting of cooking gas cylinders will adversely impact on the livelihood condition of crores of families across the country.

This UPA-2 government’s reasoning that such hikes are inevitable because of the `burgeoning losses’ of oil companies is a patent falsehood. The oil and natural gas giant, ONGC, declared a net profit of Rs 25,123 crore for the year 2011-12.  For the next quarter ending June 30, 2012, it has reported a further growth in profit of 48.4 per cent.  The IOC has reported a net profit of Rs 4,265.27 crore for 2011-12.  The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) reported a net profit of Rs 911 crore. Interestingly, for the last quarter of the fiscal, January-March 2012, its net profit increased by 312 per cent.  The Bharat Petroleum has reported a net profit of Rs 1,546.68 crore. 

This UPA-2 government is thus committing a gigantic fraud on the Indian people.

The CPI(M) calls upon all its units to organise strong protest actions against the imposition of such severe economic burdens. The CPI(M) calls upon all secular opposition forces to unite in protest to force the UPA-2 government to roll back this unreasonable hike in the prices of diesel and limiting cooking gas cylinders.