Thursday, April 28 2005 09:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) yesterday (Apr 27, 2005) asked Government not to hike prices of petroleum products and suggested other measures to cope with the soaring global oil prices.

CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury and deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Dipankar Mukherjee met Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and told him that the burden of rising international oil prices should not be thrust on to the common man with yet another price hike.

Aiyar explained to the CPM leaders that there is a need to hike the prices of petroleum products.

The CPM leaders said that the Finance Ministry should also share the burden of rising global prices since the excise duty structure revised in the Budget was described as revenue neutral.

The Left leaders also asked Government to suspend the utilisation of additional cess of 50 Paise on petrol and diesel for developing roads and use the fund for meeting the effects of international petroleum prices.

The Budget raised the cess from Rs 1.50 to Rs 2 and the increase itself would yield Rs 3,000 crore annually.

Government should also return Rs 5,400 crore collected as cess to the oil industry, the two leaders said.

The fund, meant for development of the oil industry, is currently used for other purposes from the Consolidated Fund of India.