The Decision of UPA Government to de-regulate the Prices of Diesel at least partially has not gone well among masses and it has been criticized by Opposition and Left Parties who have been against such de-regulation since inception.
Yesterday, State-run transport fuel retailers have been allowed to revise diesel prices marginally and periodically without prior government consent.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)’s central committee meeting at Kolkata party politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the decision was aimed at increasing the “super-profit” of the oil companies.
He dubbed the decision a “non-economic one”, saying the government imported crude diesel, while the price of the refined oil would go up.
“This will have a cascading effect on the price of essentials. It will increase the burden on the common man,” he said, reacting to the government allowing state-run oil marketing companies to revise diesel prices from time to time in line with global crude oil prices.
He said to contain public anger, the UPA government has given a sop by increasing the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per household to nine from six a year.
Terming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as “insensitive” to the sufferings of the people, Yechury said it only protected the interests of the international financial capital and the big business. “It is committed to the neo-liberal economic policies”.
The CPI-M central committee was discussing the anti-people policies of the UPA dispensation, he said, adding it would take the issues before the masses.
“Early March, four jathas will originate from four parts of the country. They will culminate in Delhi where a big rally will be held on March 17 at the Ramlila Maidan”.
“Besides, we will also hold protest meetings, processions across the country against moves like the one on diesel”.
To another query, he said non-Left parties were also welcome to join the Left in the movements, but noted they had seen during the FDI in multi-brand retail issue that even those parties which protested on the streets against the government decision ended up supporting the government in parliament.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat also criticised the decision to allow public sector firms to hike diesel prices from “time to time”, saying the rates will now “go on increasing”.
“Now, diesel prices will go on increasing,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general Karat told media persons here.
In a cabinet meeting presided over by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it was decided to partially decontrol pricing of diesel, giving the state-run oil marketing companies to “make small corrections in pricing from time-to-time”.
In a related decision on India’s petroleum sector, it was also decided to raise the annual allocation of subsidised cooking gas from six to nine cylinders per household.
The government had earlier limited the number of subsidised cylinders to six per annum.
The decisions on diesel and cooking gas take immediate effect, officials said.
“Oil marketing companies have been given the freedom to make small corrections from time-to-time,” Finance Minister P.Chidambaram said, even as officials said the oil marketing companies could revise prices by an amount less than Rs.1 per litre at one go.
The move comes nearly three years after petrol prices were similarly freed in June 2010 and ahead of the Congress Party’s introspection meeting (Chintan Shivir) and the annual session in Jaipur, Jan 17-19, 2012.
But other political parties notably the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress and the Left parties, did not take kindly to the move saying, that the diesel prices had a bearing on the overall inflation of most commodities.
Reacting on the government’s decision BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar termed it “atrocious” saying it would have a “cascading” effect on the prices of other commodities.
“First they raised rail fares and now diesel. This is atrocious,” Javadekar said.
“Diesel goes into the prices of all essential commodities. Whether it is food grains, vegetables, fruits, diesel becomes a component when price escalation takes place,” West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said.
Petroleum ministry officials said the move was necessitated by the fact that oil marketing companies had accumulated losses worth Rs.52,711 crore from April-September, 2012 (Rs.9.60 per litre in the present scenario by selling diesel at below cost).
The OMCs had incurred under recoveries of about Rs.81,192 crore for the 2011-12 and Rs.34,706 crore in 2010-11.
The last time diesel prices were hiked was in September 2012, when it was increased by Rs.5.63 a litre, the sharpest ever rise.