Petrol price rollback ruled out

Terming West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee as a “compulsive populist’’, the UPA II Government on Saturday ruled out any rollback in petrol prices that was hiked by Rs. 1.82 a litre on Thursday night.

Virtually dismissing the criticism by the Trinamool Congress and its allies, highly placed sources in the Government said Ms. Banerjee was playing to the galleries and she was part of the decision taken last year to de-regulate the petrol prices. “Ms. Banerjee had not attended that EGoM meeting of June 25, 2010, but her consent was taken. She continued in the Union Cabinet after the decision was made to decontrol petrol prices and did not threaten even once to withdraw support. The decision to hike petrol price was in line with the empowerment that government has given to oil marketing companies last year,’’ a senior Cabinet Minister remarked.

Members of CPI staging a protest against hike in petrol price, at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi on Saturday. 

“She is a compulsive populist. When we have ally like them we don't need opposition BJP,’’ the Minister added.

With the opposition as well as UPA allies unleashing a barge of criticism against the decision to hike petrol prices at a time when the common man was reeling under the impact of high inflation and rising prices of various commodities, the government appeared to be unfazed by sharp reactions of allies like the Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and DMK arguing that not much political heat had been generated from this latest price hike.

The oil companies were forced to hike the petrol price because of two major reasons including rising crude oil prices in the international market and the rupee's depreciation against dollar, making imports costlier.

However, Government sources were of the view that with deregulation having been se tin, the state-owned oil companies took the decision to hike prices on their own and were not required to consult anyone in the government. “The government does not want to become unpopular, but sometimes it is forced to take unpopular decisions. It is not that the government is running for Nobel Prize for unpopularity. Government does unpopular things only when it becomes inevitable,’’ a senior official in the Government remarked.