Left writes to Manmohan Singh on fuel price hike

New Delhi, June 5: Terming the government's proposal to hike prices of petroleum products as as "unjustified", the Left parties today wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggesting measures to "insulate" consumers from the price rise.

The Left parties coordination meeting has threatened to hold country-wide protests against the government's proposed hike.

The Petroleum Ministry in the background note to the Left parties on May 10 had given its reasons for the the "imminent" increase in the prices of petroleum products by Rs 3-4 per litre.

The creation of Price Stablisation Fund, reduction in excise duty, imposition of a windfall tax are among the alternative suggestions contained in the letter written by the CPI(M), CPI, Forward bloc and RSP.

The letter urged the Centre to review the need of giving a duty draw back of Rs 3500-4000 as export incentives to exporters of petroleum products.

It also called for mobilisation of resources through security transaction tax and capital gain tax.

UNI