Coming Friday a meeting of the empowered group of ministers was suppose to happen which was postponed. The meeting was to decide on the upward revision of fuel prices.
No new date for the meeting has been fixed as yet.
UPA allies like Trinamool Congress, The DMK, and the NCP are opposing any hike in prices of petrol and diesel, and the postponement was to give the government time to build a political consensus on the issue, as was heard from political sources.
The inflation can go up if a price hike in fuel takes place and that may be a matter of concern. The inflation has already crossed the double digit mark of 10.16%.
The eGoM is chaired by the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and had met to discuss on the issue recommended by the Kirit Parikh committee which asked freeing of fuel prices from government control, but eGoM could not reach to an unanimous decision.
The kirit Parikh report which was published in February stated that the transport fuel prices should be based on the market and should not be at a subsidized rate of the government. It also recommended that the price of one acylinder of LPG gas should go up by Rs. 100 and the kerosene should be Rs. 6 more per litre.
The panel of ministers had noted in the last meeting that a heavy burden of Rs. 345, 000 crore had been there on the government for compensating the losses incurred by the oil companies of the public sector for selling fuel at subsidized rate in the financial year 2003-04. and 2009-2010.
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