Ann APPEAL
Abolish petro taxes
(As urged by Standing Committee on Energy of
Parliament In 2005)
Fuel prices are going up and up every month resulting in 41%
increase in the last one year. These hikes mainly affect two-wheeler riders and
small car users directly and not the rich. Besides, these hikes are leading to
increased inflation, particularly food inflation, because fuels form an
essential factor for production of all goods and services. These result in
increased suffering to millions of disadvantaged people. Because of higher
costs of production and transportation, development is retarded resulting in
loss of revenue and our exports have declined, being less competitive. Civil
aviation industry is suffering huge losses due to high fuel price. Governments
are not only closing their eyes to all these pitfalls but also continuously
increasing fuel taxes ignoring Parliament Committee recommendation and bluffing
that they have no role in the pricing of fuel.
The facts are:
1. Central and state governments have been taxing fuels (about
50% in some states) and making huge profits
at the expense of people from sale
of petroleum products.
2. They have been earning about Rs.1,50,000 crores from the
sale of petroleum products, mostly
extorted from unwilling but helpless aam
admi. One could even doubt whether governments have developed a vested
interest in increasing fuel prices because some part of the tax is a percentage
of the price – higher the price higher the revenue (profit) in absolute
terms.
3. The central subsidy paid this year is likely to be around
Rs.23,000 crores only, leaving a huge profit of Rs.1,27,000 crores. Hence subsidy
is not a real reason for high prices.
4. A basic defect of these taxes is that they burden both
rich and poor alike, both directly and indirectly by the spiraling cost
of everything including essential things needed by the lower and middle
classes already suffering from inequitable development.
5. Lack of an ethics of care for aam admi is crystal clear on the
part of governments which go on merrily
making profits from sale of fuels while
aam admi, have been forced
repeatedly to increasingly struggle against inflation and badly hurting food
inflation, that too continuously for a long time.
6. Prevention of budget deficit is not a proper justification
because it can be achieved much better by (1) preventing misuse and
wastage of public funds due to inefficiency, grave irregularities and
corruption in the system and (2) postponing funding of projects with
comparatively lower priority.
7. Current domestic price of fuel on account of international
price will be about Rs. 30 only as against about Rs.75+. Fuel price in India is
double of that in China and many times higher than in USA. Hence increase in international price is
not a real reason for high prices.
8. In
2005, Standing Committee on Energy of Parliament had urged government to
reduce its reliance on petro-taxes. Ignoring this, revenue from petro-taxes
was repeatedly increased, showing scant respect for Parliament which is repeatedly stated
as supreme (whenever it suits!).
[Please see attached article “Need to rethink and act urgently on fuel prices” for more details.]
To bring down fuel prices we have to put pressure on the
governments to do the following:
A. Stop collection of
taxes on fuels immediately to reduce fuel prices and to control both
general and food inflation and thereby relieve the burden on aam admi. This will enable them to eat
well, maintain good health, educate their children better and use transports
necessary for their daily use, besides achieving speedier development of the
country and larger exports and reducing burden on the airlines struggling for
survival.
B.
Present a white paper covering all aspects of buying petroleum
products and fixing fuel prices to clear all issues.
If you agree, please forward this mail to as many individuals
and group mail members as possible (those
who are reluctant to open attachments can be made aware of the facts by this
mail). On my
part, I have already sent these to more than two thousand persons to spread
awareness and I am continuing.
If you forward this mail with attached article to more than 10
persons you can satisfy yourself and feel happy that you have sincerely
cooperated in helping millions of people suffering directly and indirectly due
to petro tax imposed by government.
MPs can and should put pressure on government to abolish petro
tax because it is their bounden
duty to help millions of people suffering due to this tax.
After lot of searching, I was able to get email IDs of some MPs. These are
reproduced below. Please forward this mail to these MPs and as many more MPs as
you can. If they are flooded with such mails, they may wake up and act
These two actions will be important contributions
from you to help millions suffering directly and indirectly from high fuel
taxes.
Email IDs of some MPs
jdwivedi@sansad.nic.in tapan.sen@sansad.nic.in
emsn@sansad.nic.in asingh@sansad.nic.in mranwar@sansad.nic.in ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in rajeev.c@nic.in
bacharya@sansad.nic.in ravis@sansad,nic.in ssa@sansad.nic.in govindrao.adik@sansad.nic.in vmoily@kar.nic.in
office@rahulgandhi.in scindia@gmail.com sachin.pilot@sansad.nic.in pilotoffice@gmail.com ak.antony@sansad.nic.in
The front page of Deccan Chronicle of 05-11-11 has a pertinent
cartoon in which the Prime Minister says “We never face any debt crisis.
Whenever we need money we hike fuel prices.”
Elia Wiesel, winner of Nobel Peace Prize cautions as follows:
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men
to do nothing” Edmund
Burke
“There can be efforts that fail but there should not be a failure
of efforts” – Anonymous
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