New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS): The CPI-M Friday accused the government of committing a "gigantic fraud" by hiking fuel prices at a time when Indian oil companies were making huge profits.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist condemned the "unprecedented" hike in the price of diesel and the limiting of six cooking gas cylinders per family per year.

"The hike in diesel price will have a cascading inflationary impact imposing greater burdens on the already suffering people," it said in a statement.

"Agricultural sector and farmers will particularly suffer. The limiting of cooking gas cylinders will adversely impact on the livelihood condition of crores of families across the country."

It said the government's reasoning that such hikes were inevitable because of the "burgeoning losses" of oil companies "is a patent falsehood".

The statement said that oil and natural gas giant ONGC declared a net profit of Rs.25,123 crore for 2011-12. For the next quarter ending June 30, it had reported a further growth in profit of 48.4 percent.

The IOC reported a net profit of Rs.4,265.27 crore for 2011-12. The Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) reported a net profit of Rs.911 crore.

"Interestingly, for the last quarter of fiscal January-March 2012, its net profit increased by 312 percent. The Bharat Petroleum has reported a net profit of Rs.1,546.68 crore.

"The UPA government is thus committing a gigantic fraud on the Indian people," it said.

The CPI-M called upon all secular opposition forces to unite to roll back "this unreasonable hike in the prices of diesel and limiting of cooking gas cylinders".