At Kolkata::

The West Bengal government revised the sales tax rates to provide fuel at the following comparatively lower rates.

• petrol up by Rs.5 to Rs.52.20

• diesel up by Rs.3 to Rs.35.81

• lpg up by Rs.50 to Rs.350/cylinder

Nationwide ::

inflation up 0.5%
Other related effects ::

• custom rate surges to 2.5 from 7.5 %.

• in WB a 12 hour strike scheduled.

In this crucial period of time when the UPA(United progressive alliance-the ruling party in India) should be keeping peace with the common man, when it is due an election an year from now, in the cabinet meeting on wednesday which was an immediate response to the oil price surges around the globe, the price of gasoline was decided to be raised by 12 cents a litre.
Diesel was decided a raise of 7 cents a litre.
Only the prices of kerosene were kept fixed which is used at large by poor people in India. But the commoners should understand that the reason for the hike is a direct impact on international surges.
The rise, was thus widely expected. India has been hit hard because of this hike as india imports three-quarter of it’s crude oil requirements which is ever growing with the growing economy of the country.
The governmet says the hike was a necessity to bail out pubic sector oil companies which are already running at a losses quite some time now.

A B Bardhan, general secretary of the Communist Party of India, said that Singh told him the government was helpless in the face of rising global crude oil prices and had no option but to increase retail prices of petrol and diesel. Manmohan Singh told Bardhan that the oil PSU’s had gone down to a zero dividend level whereas the global oil prices were past 70 dollars a barrel! On being asked to lower the duties on oil, the Prime Minister told the CPI leader that their revenue budget was also in a ‘bad shape’!

Lets’ face  it. This is a global impact and we at this rate of development are vulnerable to any rocking of global boats. Any amount of bandhs is not going to bring about any change and the sooner we learn to live with the new price the better we will be ready for the next rise.