Alleviate poverty, Eliminate Poor

- Anil Narendra

We think that the Manmohan Singh government has adopted the policy of elimination of the poor in order to alleviate the poverty. Had it not been the case, the government would have at least tried to make efforts to control the inflation. But, there are preparations afoot to increase petrol prices once again and also to increase the prices of diesel and kerosene. This is the state of affairs, when per barrel crude prices have gone down in the international market. Union Minister of Petroleum, Jaipal Reddy said at Dehradun on Tuesday that in comparison to the international prices, the petrol prices are still lower in the domestic market. According to Mr Reddy, oil marketing companies are incurring a loss of Rs 4 per litre on petrol. The Indian Oil Chairman, RS Butala said in a press conference the same day that the net profit of the Company has gone down in 2009-10 due to selling the products at lower prices. The Company earned a profit of Rs 10,221 Crore during 2009-10, which came down to Rs 3905.16 Crore in the last quarter of the previous financial year. This means that the Chairman is talking of net profit, whereas the Minister is talking of loss to the Company.

Due to the consolidation of dollar in the global market vis-à-vis other currencies, the price of crude oil came down to 99 $ per barrel.  It may be mentioned that per barrel price of crude had touched the 115 $ mark, highest in last 34 months. It may be astonishing for the readers to know that petrol price in Pakistan is just Rs 17 per litre, and it is still lower in Indonesia.

These oil companies have made lives of the poor, middle class, employees miserable. We demand probe into their financial affairs. Where these companies are spending their revenue? Why should the common man suffer for their luxuries? In fact, these navratna companies are plundering the country. The government has never explained that how much petrol and diesel is consumed by the private commercial sector. According to our estimates, share of oil consumption by public and these navratna companies, Railways, Air Lines in the total oil consumption ranges between 70 to 80 %. Why does not the government reduce its quota of consumption by 10%? The government should desist from adding fuel to the inflation by increasing oil prices quite often. The government must officially inform the public about the share of government taxes in the price of the petrol, which is being sold at Rs 63-37 in Delhi at present. What is the cost to the government?

People had high expectations from Economist Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, but he has disappointed them. In fact, our Supreme Court is more sensitive than Manmohan Singh, who, in its recent ruling has said that a free market is not the solution to the problems. Strongly criticising the strategic pillars of the modern economy – liberalizaton, privatization and globalization, the Supreme Court has underlined the need to review the free market system. Justice Sudershan Reddy’s Bench clearly said that in the name of free market, the government cannot escape from its constitutional responsibility, under which it must work for the welfare of the people. Free market system without regulations, will lead us to the broader disappointment.