CPI-M wants petrol price at 25 a litre

PANAJI: The Goa unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) organized a protest dharna at Kranti circle, KTC bus stand, Panaji, demanding the immediate roll-back of the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
The CPI-M has pointed out that since the last four years the UPA -2 regime of Manmohan Singh in its ruthless pursuit of “neoliberal economic policies” had dismantled the administered price mechanism and had introduced deregulation of oil prices as per international oil prices.
Accordingly with rising oil prices, the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG had steadily increased in India increasing the financial burden on the frail shoulders of the common man. Since June 2014, international oil prices have steadily fallen from $120 per barrel to less than $50 per barrel. By the very same neoliberal logic of Manmohan's UPA-2 which has been heartily endorsed and even more ruthlessly implemented by the BJP, the prices of petrol which were about 60 in Goa in June 2014 should have come down to 25 per litre in January 2015.
Instead, the price of petrol is about 53 in the market. In other words, the common man is being looted to the extent of 28 per litre.
The CPI-M has demanded that the BJP governments at the Centre and in Goa should immediately roll back petrol, diesel and LPG prices, so that the common man is benefitted. The CPI-M has further demanded that the various reliefs schemes of the government should be funded not by increasing VAT or excise duties on petroleum products but by increasing taxes on rich people.