The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party have issued the following statement:
By increasing the price of petrol by Rs. 5 a litre, the UPA government has given another cruel blow to the people who are already suffering from all-round price rise. After the deregulation of petrol pricing, there have been more or less a monthly increase in petrol prices. But since January 2011 no increase in petrol prices was announced by the oil companies. Obviously, the government had directed them not to do so keeping in view the assembly elections to five states.
Immediately after the elections, this steep increase in prices has been announced. This itself shows that the hike in the price of petrol is politically manipulated. The UPA government refuses to restructure the ad valorem tax structure on import of petro products. If the cess revenues earned by the government due to rise in international prices is returned to oil companies, then there would be no need to hike prices and burden the aam admi.
The people are not going to take this cynical policy which leads to increased inflation and price rise quietly. The Left parties call upon all its units to mobilize the people and organize protests against this fresh attack and demand a reversal of the deregulation policy.
