HYDERABAD: The state government’s coffers are going to ring as a result of the hike in price of petrol announced on Wednesday. The midnight coup of the central government will help the state reap a rich harvest of Rs 200 crore per annum without lifting a finger.Petrol sold in the state attracts value-added tax of 33 per cent. Before Wednesday’s hike of Rs 7.50 per litre, state made a whopping Rs 4,000 crore annually from the sale of petrol. Now it has a bonus of Rs 200 crore.However, the state government would have to contend with the protests announced by the opposition parties, who see in the unpopular price hike a grandstanding opportunity in this election season. While the left parties were quick on the uptake by burning flags round the state barely an hour after the announcement was made in New Delhi, the TDP roused its cadres to stir things up from Thursday. The TRS also gave a similar call to its workers, and their way is to burn the UPA government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in effigy. The Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee issued a rather ambitious bandh call for all of Telangana Thursday. The announcement of the hike came right during prime time on TV, and so proved an ideal op for opposition leaders in the state to flash their pro-people credentials.TDP boss Chandrababu Naidu was first off the blocks, demanding a rollback of the hike, the eighth during the UPA’s second innings. “It seems the government at the Centre has decided to make the life of the common man hell,” he said. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao warned the government that the people would teach a fitting lesson in the 2014 elections to the Congress for all its anti-people decisions.CPM state secretary B V Raghavulu demanded a rollback to ease the burden on the common man, whose life has already become miserable due to spiraling prices of essential commodities. CPI state secretary K Narayana also said the hefty price hike was unjust.
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