Statement by NDA on Bharat BandhSunday, 04 July 2010
The National Democratic Alliance is outraged by the appalling insensitivity of the Central Government in imposing a massive burden on the people in the form of higher taxes on petroleum products and the proposed dismantling of Administered Price Mechanism first for petrol and subsequently for diesel.
The hefty increase in the retail prices of petrol, diesel, LPG cylinders and, most importantly, kerosene could not have come at a worse time. Food inflation is running at approximately 18 per cent, a whopping rate by international standards. The Government’s assurances of controlling prices are increasingly sounding like a cruel joke. Knowing full well the cascading effect of fuel price hikes on all commodities, the Government, which claims it has the best economists of the country running the system, showed utter contempt for the concerns of the aam aadmi in whose name it sought votes just one year ago.
In two phases over the last six months, price of petrol has been raised by Rs 6.44/litre, diesel by Rs 4.55/litre, LPG cylinders by Rs 35 and kerosene by Rs 3/litre. It appears that the Government is determined to systematically starve the people of India who are already groaning under unprecedented high prices of food. Now they will not be able to afford even the fuel to cook the meagre amount of food that an average family can still buy.
Moreover, the decontrol of petrol and diesel prices at this juncture will leave ordinary people at the mercy of international oil producers and refiners. It will mean that prices of petroleum products could be going up constantly, as frequently as once every week.
The NDA has been doggedly opposing the Government’s insensitive economic policies and its abysmal failure to control prices. Both inside and outside Parliament, we have repeatedly demanded reversal or at least a reduction in fuel prices. The NDA has also pointed out that prevailing international crude prices (approximately $ 78 per barrel) are lower than the peak of $ 150 per barrel reached two years ago. When global crude prices are soft, it defies logic why the Government of India is hell bent on burdening people repeatedly by hiking retail prices.
We can come to only one conclusion: Either the highly-reputed economic “wizards” in the Government, such as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are nowhere as competent as claimed by the Congress Party, or that the Government has succumbed once more to the pressure of greedy MNCs that control the bulk of international oil trade. This conclusion seems inevitable after recent revelations exposed the machinations of the Congress leadership in 1984 after the Bhopal gas tragedy when the then governments in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi connived to let Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson off the hook despite the company’s complicity in the mass murder of over 15,000 innocent people.
The fact is that petrol, which sells at Rs 53/litre at pumps, has a basic price of only Rs 16.50. The rest consists of various taxes. Oil Export production and sales are subject to ad-valorem duties of customs excise and local state Taxes. Every increase in oil prices increases the revenue burden also.The consumer pays both for oil increase and also increase in taxes which amounts to over 50% of the total cost.Clearly, the main purpose of imposing higher prices is to increase the profits of oil companies so that they can cough up higher and higher dividends to the Government. In 2008-9, public sector oil companies contributed Rs 90,000 crore by way of dividends. With the latest hike, the dividend is estimated to climb to Rs 120,000 crore. Yet, the Government argues that high international prices will result in the loss of Rs 53,000 crore to its revenues. Assuming for a moment that the Government is not lying (although how it has reached the figure of Rs 53,000 crore is quite baffling), it still stands to make a huge profit by the increased fuel prices.
Do we elect a Government to make profits at our expense? Or do we choose a Government in the hope that it will cushion us from the impact of global price fluctuations and provide economic security? The Government, which claims its first priority is the poor, obviously has no idea what poverty means. Merely paying some high-profile visits to thatched huts of poor families to offer lip sympathy is no substitute for policies that will genuinely alleviate poverty. If our Ministers climbed down from their ivory towers and condescended to interact with any poor or lower middle class family they would come to know how the Government’s anti-poor policies have ruined them.
Go and ask a housewife how she manages to feed her family when dal costs Rs 90/kg, wheat Rs 22/kg, sugar Rs 30 and vegetables are unaffordable for most. The poor man’s standard food – the ordinary dal – kept getting diluted with water at the hands of distraught housewives as prices soared uncontrollably. Now, with LPG cylinders costing around Rs 420 and kerosene prices hiked massively, how does an average family even afford to cook or light a lantern in its dark home?
It is well known that an increase in petroleum product prices has a multiplier effect on others. Transporters are first to hike their rates and pass on the burden to consumers. Auto-rickshaw and taxi fares are being increased by big amounts all over the country already. While the poor are cutting back further on food consumption, middle class people find their life’s savings vanish into thin air.
The NDA asserts that it will not tolerate this premeditated conspiracy against the people of India by an insensitive Government and Congress Party. We are heartened to find that cutting across ideologies, opposition parties have come together to forcefully register their protest and demand roll back of the recent hikes. Even functionaries of the ruling party have publicly expressed their anger while several allies of the Congress are also up in arms. The Congress stands isolated and its highly advertised commitment to the aam aadmi stands totally exposed.
As the first step in mobilizing public opinion against a Government that is blind and deaf to the concerns of the poor, the NDA has called for a Bharat Bandh on Monday, July 5. This will be followed by a series of agitations and the issue will be raised powerfully in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. We will not allow the Government to ride roughshod over the people of India. It is a shame 63 years after Independence the number of families living below the poverty line (BPL) is going up each year. The latest burden imposed on the people can only add to these numbers.
As the principal opposition alliance, NDA appeals to the people to rally around its determined effort to force the Government to roll back the anti-people hike in petroleum product prices. We appeal to other political parties, workers’, farmers’, women’s, students’ organizations, NGOs and everybody else to come together to make Monday’s Bharat Bandh a resounding success so that our Kumbhkarna-like Government is compelled to wake up in the face of people’s wrath. If the Government admits its inability to roll back prices and control inflation, it has no business to cling on to power. This is the message that will go out from tomorrow’s Bharat Bandh.
http://www.bjp.org/content/view/3393/394/
The hefty increase in the retail prices of petrol, diesel, LPG cylinders and, most importantly, kerosene could not have come at a worse time. Food inflation is running at approximately 18 per cent, a whopping rate by international standards. The Government’s assurances of controlling prices are increasingly sounding like a cruel joke. Knowing full well the cascading effect of fuel price hikes on all commodities, the Government, which claims it has the best economists of the country running the system, showed utter contempt for the concerns of the aam aadmi in whose name it sought votes just one year ago.
In two phases over the last six months, price of petrol has been raised by Rs 6.44/litre, diesel by Rs 4.55/litre, LPG cylinders by Rs 35 and kerosene by Rs 3/litre. It appears that the Government is determined to systematically starve the people of India who are already groaning under unprecedented high prices of food. Now they will not be able to afford even the fuel to cook the meagre amount of food that an average family can still buy.
Moreover, the decontrol of petrol and diesel prices at this juncture will leave ordinary people at the mercy of international oil producers and refiners. It will mean that prices of petroleum products could be going up constantly, as frequently as once every week.
The NDA has been doggedly opposing the Government’s insensitive economic policies and its abysmal failure to control prices. Both inside and outside Parliament, we have repeatedly demanded reversal or at least a reduction in fuel prices. The NDA has also pointed out that prevailing international crude prices (approximately $ 78 per barrel) are lower than the peak of $ 150 per barrel reached two years ago. When global crude prices are soft, it defies logic why the Government of India is hell bent on burdening people repeatedly by hiking retail prices.
We can come to only one conclusion: Either the highly-reputed economic “wizards” in the Government, such as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are nowhere as competent as claimed by the Congress Party, or that the Government has succumbed once more to the pressure of greedy MNCs that control the bulk of international oil trade. This conclusion seems inevitable after recent revelations exposed the machinations of the Congress leadership in 1984 after the Bhopal gas tragedy when the then governments in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi connived to let Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson off the hook despite the company’s complicity in the mass murder of over 15,000 innocent people.
The fact is that petrol, which sells at Rs 53/litre at pumps, has a basic price of only Rs 16.50. The rest consists of various taxes. Oil Export production and sales are subject to ad-valorem duties of customs excise and local state Taxes. Every increase in oil prices increases the revenue burden also.The consumer pays both for oil increase and also increase in taxes which amounts to over 50% of the total cost.Clearly, the main purpose of imposing higher prices is to increase the profits of oil companies so that they can cough up higher and higher dividends to the Government. In 2008-9, public sector oil companies contributed Rs 90,000 crore by way of dividends. With the latest hike, the dividend is estimated to climb to Rs 120,000 crore. Yet, the Government argues that high international prices will result in the loss of Rs 53,000 crore to its revenues. Assuming for a moment that the Government is not lying (although how it has reached the figure of Rs 53,000 crore is quite baffling), it still stands to make a huge profit by the increased fuel prices.
Do we elect a Government to make profits at our expense? Or do we choose a Government in the hope that it will cushion us from the impact of global price fluctuations and provide economic security? The Government, which claims its first priority is the poor, obviously has no idea what poverty means. Merely paying some high-profile visits to thatched huts of poor families to offer lip sympathy is no substitute for policies that will genuinely alleviate poverty. If our Ministers climbed down from their ivory towers and condescended to interact with any poor or lower middle class family they would come to know how the Government’s anti-poor policies have ruined them.
Go and ask a housewife how she manages to feed her family when dal costs Rs 90/kg, wheat Rs 22/kg, sugar Rs 30 and vegetables are unaffordable for most. The poor man’s standard food – the ordinary dal – kept getting diluted with water at the hands of distraught housewives as prices soared uncontrollably. Now, with LPG cylinders costing around Rs 420 and kerosene prices hiked massively, how does an average family even afford to cook or light a lantern in its dark home?
It is well known that an increase in petroleum product prices has a multiplier effect on others. Transporters are first to hike their rates and pass on the burden to consumers. Auto-rickshaw and taxi fares are being increased by big amounts all over the country already. While the poor are cutting back further on food consumption, middle class people find their life’s savings vanish into thin air.
The NDA asserts that it will not tolerate this premeditated conspiracy against the people of India by an insensitive Government and Congress Party. We are heartened to find that cutting across ideologies, opposition parties have come together to forcefully register their protest and demand roll back of the recent hikes. Even functionaries of the ruling party have publicly expressed their anger while several allies of the Congress are also up in arms. The Congress stands isolated and its highly advertised commitment to the aam aadmi stands totally exposed.
As the first step in mobilizing public opinion against a Government that is blind and deaf to the concerns of the poor, the NDA has called for a Bharat Bandh on Monday, July 5. This will be followed by a series of agitations and the issue will be raised powerfully in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. We will not allow the Government to ride roughshod over the people of India. It is a shame 63 years after Independence the number of families living below the poverty line (BPL) is going up each year. The latest burden imposed on the people can only add to these numbers.
As the principal opposition alliance, NDA appeals to the people to rally around its determined effort to force the Government to roll back the anti-people hike in petroleum product prices. We appeal to other political parties, workers’, farmers’, women’s, students’ organizations, NGOs and everybody else to come together to make Monday’s Bharat Bandh a resounding success so that our Kumbhkarna-like Government is compelled to wake up in the face of people’s wrath. If the Government admits its inability to roll back prices and control inflation, it has no business to cling on to power. This is the message that will go out from tomorrow’s Bharat Bandh.
http://www.bjp.org/content/view/3393/394/
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