Centre: No question of fuel price rollback

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Despite the protest strike call by the Left parties and the BJP-led NDA over the price hike of petro-products, the Centre on Sunday ruled out the possibility to rollback the price hike.
Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday made it clear: “There is no question of rollback.” He, however, refused to make any comment on the shutdown call by the BJP-led NDA and Left parties on July 5.
“It is for the political parties to decide what will be their form of protest. I do not want to comment on it,” Mr Mukherjee said this on the sidelines of seminar organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India in Kolkata.
Reacting to Mr Mukherjee’s comment that there would be no rollback of the petroleum products’ price hike, CPI(M) central committee member and MP Shyamal Chakraborty said, “Why will Pranab babu rollback the prices? They are not concerned at all about the plight of the masses. They have got DMK and Trinamul Congress by their side and are doing whatever they wish. They are handing over the petro price regulation to the ‘fatka’ market.”
The Centre on June 25 had announced to increase petrol price by Rs 3.5 a litre, diesel price by Rs 2 per litre, kerosene by Rs 3 a litre and Rs 35 per cylinder for cooking gas. Protesting this, the CPI(M)’s trade union arm Citu called a transport strike in the state on June 26.
Meanwhile, on being asked about the hike in the repo and reverse repo rates, the Union finance minister replied, “As far as interest rate is concerned, 25 basis point increase in repo and reverse repo rate is appropriate and a welcome measure. I do hope it will be subsumed in the next policy statement which will be made by the Reserve Bank of India in the later part of this month, perhaps on July 27.”
On Friday, the RBI hiked key interest rates by 25 basis points with immediate effect in an attempt to contain soaring inflation. The repo rate was increased by 25 basis points to 5.5 percent and the reverse repo rate by a similar quantum to 4 per cent.