Switch over to CPI regime on petrol prices: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday slammed the Congress-led UPA government and asked it to switch over to Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) regime that had put a control on petrol price rises.

?The sixth dose of petrol price hike is totally unjustified and anti-people. The next dose of diesel price hike from 22 Dec will result into building up inflationary pressure and will have cascading effect on general price line,? said BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

The government increased petrol prices by Rs. 3.88 on 26 June when it deregulated petrol price mechanism. Since then government has increased petrol price by Rs. 8.41 in the span of 6 months, which accounts for 18%.

?The Govt. is citing rise in crude prices in the international market as the reason for this hike, which is totally unjustified. First, Govt. raised the prices, when the international market soared to $140 per barrel.

Now, it is $100 per barrel. Govt. reduced only Rs. 1 per litre, when prices tumbled to $80 per barrel. But has raised by Rs. 8, when the prices are at $100.

?Second, in India the imported petrol cost is around Rs. 26 but Govt. levies amount to Rs. 30 per litre. This is the highest taxation in the world.

Third, the phenomenon of under recoveries is notional as all the oil companies are making profits.Fourth, at this stage of economy petrol and diesel is not luxury but necessity,? said Javadekar.

?BJP demands immediate withdrawal of price hike,? he said.

The BJP MP said this hike was tailored on the presumption that the inflation is down but this is not the real reflection as far as the food prices in the market are concerned.

?The Govt. from August 2010 has changed the whole basis of calculating Wholesale Price Index (WPI). It has changed its base year from 93-94 to 2004.

It has increased the basket of 435 items to 676 items. Due to these changes the weightage of food articles has gone down from 15.4% to 14.3%.

?And more surprisingly, the food grains (Rice, Wheat, Jowar and Bajra) per se account for only 0.4% in the new series. People are actually experiencing higher prices in the market than what is declared in the WPI.?

?157 countries are using CPI (Consumer Price Index) as the correct index of inflation.?

?BJP demands that Govt. should immediately switch over to CPI regime,? said Javadekar.

The CPI-M has also protested against the petrol price hike.

?The CPI(M) strongly condemns the sharp increase in petrol price of Rs.2.95 per litre by the oil companies. This is the fifth successive hike since deregulation of petrol prices. This is a vicious attack on the people who are already suffering from price rise and inflation,? said the party?s Polit Burea in a statement.

?The Congress-led government is responsible for this anti-people measure for having deregulated the prices of petrol. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon all its units to launch vigorous protests by mobilizing the people against this price increase,? it said.

State-run fuel companies in India hiked prices of petrol by Rs 2.95 starting Tuesday midnight.

According to the reports, Bharat Petroleum increased fuel prices with effect from Tuesday midnight due to a spike in international crude prices. Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum are likely to up their prices from Thursday.

This comes in after a Rs 0.32 per litre raise in Petrol prices announced on Nov. 9, making it the sixth hike after the Centre approved deregulation of fuel prices in June.

An Empowered Group of Ministers, led by Pranab Mukherjee is also mulling a similar hike in diesel prices later this month.