New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday ruled out rolling back over increase in fuel prices, even as the Opposition NDA called for an all-India bandh on Monday to protest the price hike and rising inflation.
"No question of roll-back," the Union finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham function here, when asked whether the Centre could review its June 25 decision of raising prices of petroleum products.
The NDA working chairperson, Mr L.K. Advani, after a meeting of its leaders, said, "This may be the first time in the history of India's politics that almost all political parties will participate in the Bharat Bandh".
Meanwhile, the Union oil minister, Mr Murli Deora, on Sunday said the nation-wide strike called by Opposition to protest fuel price hike was unjustified as the price hike will have minimal impact on the common man.
"This is nothing more than misleading the people, as these (Opposition) parties have been instrumental in notifying the deregulation of the prices of petroleum products and reducing subsidies in November, 1997, and in implementing the programme from April, 2002," Mr Deora said here.
Mr Deora said the Rs 3 per litre hike in kerosene price translates into an increased burden of only 50 paisa per day per family. The price increase of domestic LPG by Rs 35 per cylinder means an increase of less than Re 1 per day per family. The impact of the increase on the common man who uses LPG and kerosene as domestic fuels is negligible.
"Bandh call is not only unjustified, but also against the interest of the common man and poor people or daily wage earners who could be deprived of their wages, besides causing inconvenience to the public at large," he said.
Mr Deora said the BJP-led NDA regime had raised kerosene rates three-fold and the Left-supported United Front government notified moving towards market-linked pricing of LPG and kerosene.
Rebutting Opposition criticism of the June 26 decision to raise petrol prices by Rs 3.50 a litre, diesel by Rs 2 per litre, LPG by Rs 35 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 3 per litre, Mr Deora said the government was "compelled" to raise fuel prices by the "bare minimum" to save public sector oil firms from a precarious financial situation.
"The NDA government raised price of PDS kerosene from Rs 2.52 per litre in January, 1998, to Rs 9 per litre in March, 2002. This hike was 258 per cent, even though crude oil prices rose by just 147 per cent during the period," he said.
The Congress-led UPA government, in contrast, did not increase kerosene prices for the past six years, despite the price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene) more than doubling from US$ 36 a barrel in May, 2004, to US$ 78.
"We raised kerosene rates by Rs 3 per litre against the required increase of Rs 18.07 per litre," he said. "We have ensured that the poor are not unnecessarily burdened".
