Hike in fuel duties...Govt backs FM to the hilt

The Government continued to bear the brunt of the opposition ire as fuel prices increased in the wake of the Finance Minister's proposal to hike duties on petroleum products in the Union Budget. However, despite stiff resistance from both, opposition and UPA allies, Pranab Mukherjee stuck to his stand and refused to rollback the increase in duties on petro products. Mukherjee told his party colleagues and key UPA partners that the step (hike in duties on fuels) would have negligible inflationary impact. The congress leadership closed ranks on the issue and accused the opposition of resorting to "political opportunism". Justifying the fuel price hike, party spokesman Manish Tewari said that concessions in excise duty were given in June 2008 when price of crude oil was US$133 per barrel and now with the prices coming down, the Government has partially gone back to the 1998 excise regime.

Tewari said that the impact of the fuel price hike will lead to only 0.4% rise in the wholesale price index (WPI) and claimed that the opposition had attacked the government without even analyzing its implications. The Congress party spokesman asked the opposition to adopt a constructive approach towards such sensitive issues related to the economy. The opposition should introspect before resorting to such political opportunism, he said. "They (NDA) raised prices of petrol 21 times, that of diesel 24 times and that of LPG five times when the NDA was in power," he added. "There is an economic reality articulated clearly by the Finance Minister in the budget and outside in details. That lays the roadmap... I have nothing to add or subtract to that," Tewari said. Backing the Finance Minister's budget proposals, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi stated that fuel price hike was needed to pump money into the social sector.