NEW DELHI, June 15: The Left parties will insist on transparency in crude oil purchases in markets abroad when the United Front steering committee meets tomorrow to finalise the issue of a hike in petroleum prices.

According to CPI national secretary D Raja, the demand is being made because of improper crude oil deals made in the past which saw the burden being passed on to the common man. Raja, who will represent the CPI at the steering committee meeting, said serious leakages can be prevented by buying crude at competitive prices, especially when per barrel prices were low in markets such as Singapore, and avoiding shady brokers.

Although a price hike in petroleum products now seems inevitable, the CPI would still like to see a graded approach which is people friendly, Raja said.

In Jaipur today, Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is also a member of the Front steering committee, supported a ``reasonable hike'' in petroleum products.

He said the consumers should understand that the Government cannot go on providing them imported petroleum products on highly subsidised rates. Yet he said that the price hike of these products ``should be reasonable which does not cause hardship to the people.''

Sitaram Yechuri, CPI(M) representative in the steering committee, has already published a document `Oil pool deficit or cesspool of deceit,'' providing alternatives to a hike in petroleum product prices. Both Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Finance Minister P .Chidambaram favour a hike to bridge the yawning oil-pool deficit.

The meeting assumes importance in view of the strong opposition of the Left constituents of UF to any hike and the statement of the Prime Minister that some adjustment in the prices was inevitable to bridge the burgeoning oil pool account deficit.

The Left parties had forced the highest policy-making body of the coalition at its two previous meetings to postpone a decision arguing that a hike in prices of petroleum products would have a cascading effect on inflation.

The steering committee is also expected to take a decision on the UF's choice for the highest office in the country.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.