The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Protest Price Hike on LPG Cylinders
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) condemns the steep hike in prices of both commercial gas cylinders as also the 5kg gas cylinders.
The steep hike of the rates of commercial cylinders by nearly a thousand rupees, which is unprecedented, is bound to have a cascading effect. Commercial establishments are bound to pass on the liability to the consumers adding to their burdens and inflation. Many small establishments will be forced to close, leading to lay-offs and huge job-losses, which has already started happening.
While 14kg domestic cylinders have been spared for the time being, the prices for 5 kg non-subsidised cylinder has been hiked by a steep Rs. 261. This cruel hike for the 5 kg cylinders will most adversely impact small households and migrant workers, who use them due to their inability to afford the 14 kg cylinders.
This increase comes in the middle of the already increasing prices of various essentials of daily life. Thousands of migrant workers have already left cities and towns and gone back to their villages due to shortage of gas cylinders and their increased prices. Now with this harsh increase more numbers will be forced to head back home.
This is the second such hefty increase of the prices of commercial cylinders that has been done by the Modi government in the past two months. Exposing its anti-poor bias, the government refuses to forego revenue from taxes on cylinders, which could have provided a cushion to the common man.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demands the immediate withdrawal of the hike in the prices of LPG cylinders. It calls upon its units in the country to organise protests against this.