[Marxistindia] All INdia Protest Day Against Petrol & Petrol Price Hike

[news from the cpi(m)]

April 27, 2018
The Polit Bureau has issued the following statement:

May 8: All India Protest Against Petrol and Diesel Price Rise

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly
condemns the astronomical rise in the prices of petrol and diesel in the
country.

The sharp increase in the retail price of petrol and diesel is having a
backbreaking impact on the ordinary people of this country. The price of
the petroleum products have the obvious cascading effect on the essential
commodity prices which the common man uses for daily life. The PB firmly
expresses that this unusual rise which makes retail prices of petroleum
products in India, the highest in South Asia is principally on account of
the tremendous hike in mopping up revenues by the central government,
through excise duties.

In the last four years, from 1st April 2014, the excise duty on petrol has
gone up from Rs. 9.48/litre to Rs. 19.48/litre as of now. This amounts to
a hike of 105% and 47.4% of the retail price is going to the tax revenue
collection. Similarly, the excise duty on diesel which was Rs. 3.56/litre
on 1st April 2014  has now gone up to Rs. 15.33/litre. This again amounts
to an increase of 330%, while 38.09% of the retail price is going to
taxes. Going back to the earlier promise of reducing the duty in the event
of hardening of the international crude price, the government will
commensurately reduce the duty, the high level of duties continue
resulting in backbreaking burden on the people. The retail prices of
petrol and diesel are both now ruling at the highest ever levels.

The Polit Bureau demands that the central government should immediately
roll back the duty to provide some relief to the people who are coming
under tremendous burden. The Polit Bureau has called upon all its units to
observe 8th May as an all India Protest Day demanding the immediate
rollback of duty hikes. This is particularly necessary after the central
government willingly allows lakhs of crores of rupees as tax waivers to
top corporates of the country. The PB appeals to all other democratic and
pro-people forces to also join in this action to force a roll back of
excise duties.



(Hari Singh Kang)
For Central Committee Office