I have often heard that there is no limit to stupdity. The recent debate on the petrol price hike gives a million illustrations of this adage.
To give a background, the govt. at the center hiked the price of petrol by Rs.4 (over Rs.50, making it a total of Rs.54) per litre in Mumbai, and this impact is slightly different in the rest of the country, based on the local tarrifs, but net effect, the prices of petrol and diesel have increased.
As expected, there was a whiplash against this increase, and a lot of people across sections cam strongly against this hike, because it is going to impact the overall cost of living, and in toto, inserts an inflation of 4% into the system.
To appease the people, in a populist move various state governments have decided to forgo the sales tax on the increased part of the petrol price, which means for example, that Maharashtra has decided to forgo whatever sales tax is applicable on rs.4 and continue charging sales tax as per the old price of petrol which was around Rs.50.
SITARAM YECHURY (photo inline), the spokesperson for the Left based political parties, has said that 'West Bengal shall only forgo the sales tax on the increase, if the central govt. rollsback the hike'.
Now, I need help understanding this, because this is counter-intuitive. If the original price was 50, and with the increase it is 54, if the centre rolls back the price it would come down to 50, which means the hike is 0, and Mr. Yechury in his altruistic best has agreed to forgo the sales tax on 0, which again is 0. (exact quote is 'The Left said today it, too, would reduce sales tax but only after the Centre rolled back the price hike.' ref http://in.news.yahoo.com/060612/48/650ov.html)
Am I just plan dumb (or at least does Mr. Yechury believe so)?
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