The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Kerala government is likely to reduce the cess on petroleum products to ₹1 from ₹2, and an announcement in this regard will be made in the assembly on Wednesday during budget discussions, said people close to the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Sunday.
In the past week, besides opposition parties, LDF alliance partners also expressed reservations over the cess, and truckers and private bus owners associations also sought a tariff hike given the proposed ₹2 cesses. On Friday, finance minister T N Balagopal proposed a ₹2 cess on petrol and diesel to collect ₹750 crore additional revenue in the state budget to fund welfare pension and other social security activities in the state.
“In the budget, it is only proposals. We will discuss it in detail and will take an appropriate decision. Our policy is not to impose an additional burden on people,” said CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan in Kochi on Sunday.
Many allies like Nationalist Congress Party, Kerala Congress (Mani) and Congress (S) also said fuel price hikes would invite enough trouble to ordinary people.
“Hike in fuel price will lead to inflation. It will also affect the goods and services sector. We hope the government will modify these proposals,” said the chairman of Kerala Congress (Mani), Jose K Mani. Many allies said such measures would affect the LDF’s prospects in upcoming parliament elections. In the 2019 parliament election, it suffered a humiliating defeat winning only a single Lok Sabha seat out of 20.
However, the finance minister reiterated that the cess was inevitable against the backdrop of the Union government’s ceiling on borrowing.
“We have to find additional revenue given the Centre’s policies. Cess was introduced to continue welfare pensions for the poor and needy,” he said. The cash-strapped state had proposed cess on fuel, new vehicles, liquor and hiked power charges and government fees across the board to attract the much-needed revenue putting extra burden on the common man.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front announced a series of agitational programmes, while the Bharatiya Janata Party also criticised the government for blaming the Centre for its “poor economic management and extravaganza”.
“The government’s poor economic management and splurge led to the sorry state. Instead of wasting money on foreign tours with family members and appointment of party functionaries at key positions, it should have shown some prudence and discipline. It cannot put the entire blame on the Modi government and get away,” said minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan.
“We will force the government to end this naked exploitation,” said Congress state president K Sudhakaran.