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CITU: reject Chaturvedi panel report

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has demanded the “outright rejection” of the recommendations of the high-powered committee headed by B.K. Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, which submitted its report to the Prime Minister’s Office recently.

The committee was asked to examine the financial viability of the public sector oil marketing companies and subsidy and pricing issues in the petroleum sector.

CITU president M.K. Pandhe termed the recommendations on petroleum pricing “outrageous.” He said any mechanism that rested on “a notional basis of pricing” would not be acceptable. Neither the “import parity” mechanism, initiated by the National Democratic Alliance government, nor the “trade parity” formula, enunciated by the Rangarajan Committee in 2006 were acceptable, said Dr. Pandhe.

He said the Chaturvedi panel’s recommendation that petroleum products be determined by an “export parity” formula would also not be acceptable.

The CITU demanded that petroleum product prices be administered. Among the parameters to be included ought to be the actual crude oil basket of refineries in India, the actual cost of refining crude oil, the location and vintage of the Indian refineries, marketing costs and a “reasonable” profit margin for the oil companies.

Dr. Pandhe said such a pricing regime would enable the country to insulate itself from the “vagaries of the global market” by taking advantage of domestic crude production and surplus refining capacity.

Dr. Pandhe demanded an immediate rollback in prices of diesel, LPG and petrol in view of the global reduction in crude oil prices in recent weeks. He also sought a restructuring of taxes, particularly excise duties, and the imposition of a “super profit tax” on all upstream oil companies — public as well as private — when crude prices went beyond $50 a barrel.

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