Finance Minister rules out rollback of fuel price hike
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today ruled out rollback of petrol and diesel price hike saying the nation's fiscal condition did not permit him to do so.
Replying to the debate on Budget for 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said: "I would have loved to respond to the request of the Opposition (for a rollback in auto fuel price hike, particularly diesel) but my financial condition does not permit me to do so.""Kindly excuse me (from doing so)," he said.
Mukherjee had on February 26 while presenting the Budget for 2010-11 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Re one per litre and customs duty on the two from 2.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent. The twin proposals resulted in petrol prices going up by Rs 2.71 per litre in Delhi and diesel by Rs 2.55 a litre.
Virtually the entire Opposition had demanded that Mukherjee roll back at least the diesel price hike considering the cascading effect it would have on commodity prices, including food articles.The Finance Minister agreed that the Budget proposals would have some inflationary impact.
