New Delhi:
Hours after a Rs 26.50 hike in the price of non-subsidised LPG cylinders was announced, the government put the decision on hold. No reasons have been given yet for the latter decision that came close to midnight. This means non-subsidised LPG cylinders will continue to cost Rs 895.50 in Delhi.
The decision to hike prices was politically prickly, coming as it did days ahead of assembly elections in two crucial states and very close to Diwali, the most important festival in most parts of the country. Himachal Pradesh is set to go to polls on Sunday, while Gujarat will vote in December.
The hike announced earlier in the evening would have brought the cost of a non-subsidised cylinder to Rs. 922 for a household in Delhi. The same cylinder at a subsidised rate is Rs. 410.42 in the capital. A non-subsidised, 14.2 kg cylinder will now continue to cost Rs. 880 in Mumbai, Rs. 888.50 Chennai and Rs. 886.50 in Kolkata.
The government, in the face of furious protests by the opposition, allies and the pullout of the Trinamool Congress, had in September limited the number of subsidised cylinder to six per year for each household. The cap was announced as part of the big reforms push and to bite the subsidy bullet. Beyond those six cylinders, consumers will have to buy LPG at the non-subsidised rate.
Congress governments in states had later announced an additional three cylinders to below-poverty-line households.
Prices have been revised in keeping with firming international rates. State-owned oil firms revise rates of non-subsidised LPG on the 1st of every month, as they do for petrol and aviation turbine fuel, or jet fuel, based on the average imported cost and rupee-US dollar rate in the previous month.
Trinamool chief Mamata Bannerjee, who had withdrawn her support to the UPA government over the capping of subsidised LPG cylinders among other things, said on Facebook today: "The present UPA government is really becoming irresponsible and intolerable. Even being a minority government, they have been taking all major policy decisions affecting the survival of common people." She is also trying to rally political support to protest the latest hike in prices.
Other allies within the government, like the DMK and even Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, and those that give external support like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati, have expressed unhappiness at the government's LPG move.
(With PTI inputs)