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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, May 25: The Communist Party of India Marxist today opposed any move to increase the prices of petroleum products across the board saying it would have 8220;disastrous consequences8221; for the economy and would impose a great burden on the working class.
8220;This will have the most adverse of consequences 8212; economically and politically,8221; the CPM said in a paper on the oil pool deficit. Opposing the Finance Ministry8217;s proposals for a price hike, the CPM said, 8220;This is unacceptable since viable alternatives exist8221;.
The oil pool deficit at the end of the 1996-97 fiscal year is estimated at Rs 15,500 crore.
The CPM said the oil pool account was in surplus as on March end 1989 at over Rs 8,900 crores. But this was used by the Finance Ministry to meet its overall deficit periodically and reduced to Rs 4,429 crores as on March end 1993.
8220;If this amount of Rs 8900 crores with interest at current bank rates from 1989 is returned, then the oil pool deficit will not exist,8221; the CPM said.
The deficit in the oil pool account for 1997-98 is projected at Rs 24,500 crore. The CPM said if the money drawn by the Finance Ministry from the oil pool account is returned then it would amount to Rs 27,849 crores including interest, which is Rs 3,349 crores more than the deficit projected for 1997-98.
Referring to the revenue collections from the oil sector estimated in the 1997-98 budget, the CPM said the figure was put at Rs 19,675.20 crores which was more than the deficit by Rs 4,000 crores.
8220;These if eliminated and alternatives tapped, the oil pool deficit would turn to the surplus leading to a reduction in prices8221;, the CPM said.
Taking strong exception to the concessions to the 8220;rich8221; in the budget of nearly Rs 20,000 crores, these duties on oil and petro products could have been avoided, the CPM said adding in that case there would have been a surplus of Rs 4,175.20 crore.
Referring to the natural gas sector, the CPM pointed out that a dual pricing system could be considered for the non-core non-priority sector to help garner revenue of at least Rs 5,000 crore annually.
It also referred to the low natural gas prices in India and said they were 50 to 60 per cent lower than international prices and for the past seven years prices had remained static at Rs 2,470 per thousand cubic metre. A mere Rs 1,000 increase in the natural gas prices would result in an increase of Rs 2,000 crore in revenue. Referring to the availability of funds in the oil industry development board, the CPM said the cumulative cess accumulation amounted to Rs 28,900 crores as on March end this year.
