Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa opposed the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel by oil companies and demanded its immediate rollback in the interest of people, particularly, the middle and lower classes. The hike, she said, will lead to increase in prices of essential commodities.
“Owing to the hike in petrol and diesel prices, freight charges will increase and the prices of essential commodities will go up, affecting the ordinary people. I urge that the hike announced by the Oil Marketing companies should be withdrawn,” she said reacting to the latest increase in the prices of fuel. Since November 2014, against the backdrop of Centre increasing the excise duty of petrol by Rs 11.77 and diesel Rs 13.57, the present hike was not appropriate, she added.
In a statement here, Ms Jayalalithaa noted that she had pointed out many times that the price fixation policy followed by oil marketing companies is wrong. The price of petrol and diesel has now been increased based on this wrong policy.
The bi-monthly determination of fuel price based on the Rupee-US Dollar exchange rate was “not the right policy,” she said pointing to the petrol price hike by Rs 2.57 a litre and diesel by '2.35 per litre and demanded the immediate rollback of the hike.
Meanwhile, claiming that the price fixation policy favoured only the private oil marketing firms, PMK leader and MP Dr Anbumani Ramadoss said the Centre could have accepted the burden instead of passing it to the people. The hike will result in cascading effect on all sectors he said and demanded the Centre to assuage the condition of the people by withdrawing the excise duty increased since November 2014.
