Buddhadeb asks Manmohan to put on hold fuel price increase

June 30, 2010 12:11 am | Updated November 28, 2021 09:04 pm IST - Kolkata

B-38, DEL-081103 - NOVEMBER 8, 2009 - West Midnapore: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee interacts with media at the end of two days of meetings with the police and district development officers in West Midnapore district on Sunday. PTI Photo by Swapan Mahapatra

B-38, DEL-081103 - NOVEMBER 8, 2009 - West Midnapore: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee interacts with media at the end of two days of meetings with the police and district development officers in West Midnapore district on Sunday. PTI Photo by Swapan Mahapatra

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withhold the petroleum price hike and review the entire situation.

In a letter written on Tuesday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that he disagreed with the Centre's recent decision to significantly hike the prices of diesel, petrol, cooking gas and kerosene.

The letter said: “There may be, due to this decision of deregulation, an additional cause for price instability in this sector with its consequence on the general price level as well.”

Mr. Bhattacharjee said that when the Government of India has such inadequate control over the supply of crude oil, there is an inherent danger in leaving the price to market forces, which are known to be specially volatile due to speculation.

He said the country is still over-dependent on import of crude oil to the tune of about 80 per cent of its requirement.

“There is lack of clarity in the method of relating domestic price of petro-products with the international price level as well as in the profit and loss statements of the oil companies.”

The letter said that the hike will not only immediately and directly increase the cost of transportation of goods and mass transit vehicles, but will also have a cascading effect on the cost of production of farm goods and also industrial goods.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.