If government needs more tax, it should be levied on rich people, says Yechury

Senior Left leader Sitaram Yechury has criticised the Centre for hiking fuel prices and said if the government needs more tax, it should be levied on rich people.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said that entire revenue from petroleum cess and surcharge goes to the central government and if the government needs more revenue, taxes should be collected from the rich people in the country.

Yechury was speaking at a press conference at the 23rd CPI (M) Party Congress in Kannur, Kerala.

The CPM Party Congress passed a resolution demanding the central government to withdraw cess, surcharges and additional taxes on petroleum products.

‘’The central government had given tax breaks to corporates even at a time when the country was at the peak of the pandemic. Giving concessions to the corporates and hurting people by raising petroleum prices is not acceptable,” Yechury said.

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“BJP is trying to undermine secularism in the country. They are dividing society into communal lines. Only the secularists can defend the BJP’s attempt to weaken India's secularism in the name of Hindutva. Compromises on stands will only help the communal forces grow and the workers from those political parties will join BJP," he added.

''In this particular situation, CPM has taken an uncompromising secular stance. The main objective of the Communist Party is to defeat and isolate the BJP”, Yechury said.