CICU demands roll back of hike in diesel prices

Ludhiana, September 14, 2012: Avtar Singh, General Secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU) has condemned the Union Government’s decision to hike diesel prices and putting cap on supply of subsidised LPG cylinders.

In a statement here today, he added the steepest ever hike of Rs.5 in the price of diesel and restricted supply of six LPG cylinders a year for a family was arbitrary and unrealistic. This is a fatal blow to the industrial and agricultural sectors. This decision would hit the industrialists, farmers, transporters and common man the most.

He said that the hike would further burden majority of the industrial units running on gen-sets on diesels due to repeated power cuts and erratic power supply hampering the overall planning of production.

Further, he said the hike would further enhance the cost of production causing a big financial loss to the industrialists who are already facing shortage of skilled labor from the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, which is no more easily available as in the past.

He said the hike would also result in increase in the transportation and freight charges thereby considerably impacting the common man due to corresponding price rise of essential commodities and other materials.

He criticised the Centre, for the first time restricting the supply of LPG cylinders to six per family in a year which will further overburden the common man the most saying such anti people decision will have a disastrous impact on the daily life of masses.

Both diesel and cooking gas have widespread usage therefore the hike and restricted supply of these petro products will have a cascading effect on the economy as a whole leading to overall inflation, he remarked.

These price hike decisions are a result of anti people policies being persuaded by the Central Government. He demanded immediate roll back of hike in diesel prices, besides the ceiling on supply of subsidized LPG cylinders.