thiruvananthapuram after the controversy involving actor joju george in kochi on monday during the road blockade staged by the congress party against fuel price hike the opposition and ruling front clashed over the same issue in the assembly on tuesdaywhile the opposition demanded that the government should give fuel subsidy to give relief to the public finance minister k n balagopal said reducing the state tax further will cause a huge financial crisisopposition leader v d satheesan said that had the actor responded to any protest by the cpm it would have been his condolence meeting the next day we did not manhandle him the cpm that had planned several sabotages including bombing the trains in their calcutta thesis need not teach the congress on how to conduct a protest it was the police who had informed the protesting youth congress workers that the actor was in an inebriated state let the chief minister himself inquire about this matter he saidsatheesan said that the upa government had handed over the powers to the oil companies only for the marketdriven pricing of petrol the idea was to ensure petrol at a lower rate when the prices of international crude came down at the present deregulated rate petrol should have been offered to the public at rs 30 per litre but the nda government passes the burden to the public when the prices of crude increase and increases the taxes when the crude price decreases thereby not providing relief to the public he said satheesan added that those blaming the deregulation for petroldiesel price hike should also explain how the prices of lpg cylinders are spiralling upsatheesan demanded that the government should be ready to offer subsidies from the excess tax being levied to those affected including the fishermen autorickshaw drivers etcin his reply the finance minister said the state is facing a huge shortage in tax and nontax revenue due to covid19 the government needs to spend more than rs 900 crore for social security pension and rs 14500 crore extra for revised salary and pensions of employees under these circumstances reducing the state tax of petrol and diesel will lead to a huge crisis balagopal said that the state government has not increased the taxes on petrol and diesel in the last five years the centres policy that has increased the prices to such an extent should change and irrespective of political differences all should join hands against the centre in this matter he saidthe opposition staged a walkout after the speaker denied permission for adjournment motion following the ministers explanation