Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced in the Assembly on Friday that the State government would forgo the additional tax revenue from the increase in the price of petrol effected on Thursday. As a result, the petrol price will come down by 37 paise a litre in the State.
The Chief Minister was replying to a debate sought by T.M. Thomas Isaac (CPI-M) on the petrol price hike through an adjournment motion. Though the Assembly rejected the motion moved by Dr. Isaac seeking, among other things, the withdrawal of the hike, the House unanimously adopted a resolution moved by the Chief Minister urging the Centre to retain the powers for fixing the price of petrol and other fuels.
“The State Assembly expresses concern over the frequent hike in the price of petrol that leads to increase in prices of essential commodities. The policy that enables oil companies to increase prices unilaterally whenever the oil-producing countries increased crude oil prices or on depreciation of the rupee should be reviewed.”
Mr. Chandy said both the ruling and Opposition fronts wanted the Centre to retain the administrative pricing mechanism. Oil companies should rein in production cost and increase domestic production of petroleum.
He urged the Opposition to withdraw its strike plan in view of the government decision to forgo the tax, which was all that the State government could do. The transport strike (on Saturday), which was to be followed by Bakrid, and then another agitation on November 8 would cause much inconvenience to the public.
The Chief Minister said the United Democratic Front government had forfeited revenues totalling Rs.396 crore by forgoing the taxes on two occasions when fuel prices were raised during its rule. As a result, the tax on petrol in the State had come down from 29.01 per cent to 25.42 per cent.
On the other hand, the previous government led by the Left Democratic Front had not shown such willingness to forgo the tax though fuel prices had gone up 16 times during its rule. Referring to the Opposition taunt that the Centre and the oil companies were picking the pockets of the common man, Mr. Chandy said that the previous government had not hesitated to pocket the money it got.
