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Left slams Govt on fuel price
Published on Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 15:40, Updated on Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 20:27 in 
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New Delhi: Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, Abani Roy and Debabrata Biswas on Tuesday courted arrest along with hundreds of supporters as part of protests against the recent hike in fuel prices by the UPA Government.
Terming the price hike as "unjustifiable and irrational", they demanded a total roll back urging the Government to rationalise the tax structure instead of putting the burden on the common man.
Before courting arrest, hundreds of activists of CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar as part of the nationwide agitations which began on Tuesday.
Addressing the gathering, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat criticised the move by Congress-led state governments to reduce state-level taxes on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of the price hike.
He also said the Centre should first reduce taxes to make fuel cheaper instead of passing the entire burden on the states.
Karat said the hike in fuel price could have been avoided had the Government implemented the alternatives suggested by the Left parties, including slashing customs and excise duties on crude imports.
"We have also suggested that the oil cess fund, amounting to Rs 1,25,000 crore, could be converted into a price stabilisation fund so that entire burden of global crude price hike was not passed onto the consumers," he said.
Left parties have refused to reduce sales tax for petroleum products in states ruled by them even though Congress governments in Andhra Pradesh and Goa have announced such cuts and Delhi too is expected to follow suit.
Last week, the Government increased the prices of petrol by Rs four per litre and diesel by Rs two per litre to cut the losses of state-run oil marketing companies that have been hit by soaring global crude prices.
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