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No question of accepting hike in oil prices: Karat

Special Correspondent

Centre has failed to check foodgrain price hikes: Bardhan

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

CHARTING THE COURSE: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat (right), CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan (left) and CPI leader D. Raja confer during a press conference in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: The four Left parties on Friday reiterated their opposition to any government move to raise the prices of petroleum products.

“We have been giving suggestions to the government for the past three years to restructure taxes on oil. There is no question of us accepting any hike in the prices of petroleum products,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters. He said if the government lowered the excise duty and other taxes on oil, it would also stand to gain from it.

After a meeting of the Left parties which reviewed the performance of the UPA government as it completed four years in office, Mr. Karat said there were a number of suggestions of the Left relating to measures to control spiralling prices of essential commodities and foodgrains which had not been implemented.

Besides the CPI(M) leaders, the meeting was attended, among others, by CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan and the party’s national secretary D. Raja, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas.

Mr. Bardhan said the UPA government had failed to check the spiralling prices of foodgrains and fuel. He reiterated the demands of the Left parties, including strengthening of the Public Distribution System (PDS), curbs on the procurement of foodgrains by private companies and traders and banning futures trading in 25 agricultural commodities.

“The UPA government has ignored the demands to restructure the excise and customs duty regime on crude oil and petro products. This is the only durable solution in an era of high international oil prices,” a statement by the Left parties said.

On the agrarian crisis, the Left parties noted that only “half-hearted” attempts have been made by the UPA government to address it and revive agriculture. The statement said the loan waiver scheme announced in the budget has excluded bulk of the debt-driven farmers from dry land area.

The Left parties vowed to oppose any effort to push the anti-farmer Seed Bill, move to allow FDI in warehousing and retail trade and efforts to amend the Forward Contract Act in order to allow FDI and FIIs into the commodity futures market.

They alleged that the Planning Commission was behaving like a “super cabinet” under the guidance of the Deputy Chairman. The statement said the Planning Commission was seeking to subvert the decision of the government to modernise 35 non-metro airports by the Airports Authority of India. “In the case of Kolkata and Chennai airports also, the Commission has delayed the modernisation by AAI, a fact attested to by the Civil Aviation Minister himself.”

Referring to defence links with Israel, the Left parties felt that deepening of military and security collaboration with Israel was detrimental to India’s vital interests.

On the WTO-Doha Round negotiations, they said India must reject the Non-Agriculutre Market Access (NAMA) text which seeks to force disproportionately large tariff reduction commitment on developing countries.

Women’s Bill

They demanded that the government must ensure the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, rework the Bill on social security for unorganised workers, bring a Central legislation to empower the States to regulate the fees and admissions and salaries of teachers in the private higher educational institutions.

Cautioning the UPA government, the Left parties said that it should realise that “it will have to face the wrath of the people suffering due to price rise and the deterioration in their living standards.” They expressed their firm resolve to resist the neo-liberal policies and to continue mobilisation of the people to force the government to take steps to provide relief to the people from price rise, agrarian crisis, unemployment and loss of livelihood.

Asked how he looked at the report card of the UPA government, Mr. Karat said that he did not want to give any marks to it.

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