BJP protests petrol price hike
India?s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged protests across New Delhi against petrol price hike on Monday.
BJP activists, led by Vijay Goel and Vijender Gupta, blockaded roads at various areas, namely Akshardham, Moti Nagar, Khanpur and Hanmdard T-Point on MB Road.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) also protested the steep rise in petrol prices.
?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,? said CPI-M leader Prakash Karat in a statement.
?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.?
Karat said petrol price hike is politically manipulated.
?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,? he said.
?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,? said Karat.
State-run oil companies in India raised petrol rates by about Rs 5 per litre or around 8.6 percent from midnight, officials said on Saturday; the ninth hike in nine months that will fan price rises in an economy already beset by unsettling inflation figures.
The rise, first one since January, comes a day after poll results were declared from five state elections, and is being seen as a carefully planned rise with an eye on the ballot to avoid a major backlash against the ruling coalition at the centre, already battling corruption allegations.
The steepest hike in petrol prices since they were deregulated last year, is expected to be followed by a Rs 4 per litre raise in diesel rates and Rs 20-25 per cylinder increase in domestic LPG value later this month, media reports said.
Petrol in Delhi is now selling at Rs 63.37 per litre at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) stations from Sunday, a price that still leave the country?s largest refinery losing Rs 5.50 per litre, putting another price hike on the cards soon, an official was quoted as saying.
The hike was held back for months, officials said, based on ?informal? advice from the government, which it continues to give even after freeing up petrol rates last year in June, even though crude oil prices touched a two-and-a-half-year highs this year.