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Front defers decision oil hike

The United Front on Wednesday night deferred a decision on the petroleum price hike which has been pending with the government for more than six months.

The Front's core committee and the steering committee, which met in New Delhi on Wednesday night, decided to take a final decision at the next meeting soon. But no date has been fixed for the meeting, Front spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy said.

Repudiating a suggestion that the issue was getting a stepmotherly treatment from the Front government, Reddy said differences among the Front constituents had not been resolved.

The Left parties, in particular, are opposed to any hike in prices of petroleum products though the government had been pushing for a hike in diesel, liquefied petroleum products and kerosene to meet the mounting oil pool deficit which has touched a staggering Rs 250 billion.

Petroleum industry sources say that unless the deficit is bridged, it would be difficult for the domestic oil industry to fund the import of crude.

Briefing newspersons after the meeting of the two top policy-making bodies of the Front, Reddy said a decision on the oil price hike cannot be put off for long.

The meeting took considerable time discussing the need for strengthening floor coordination especially after the debacle in the Lok Sabha when the government had to withdraw the insurance regulatory authority bill as the left parties virtually joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party in opposing certain clauses of the bill.

It was decided that all the bills have to be cleared by the floor leaders of the United Front constituents before it was piloted in Parliament to save the government from such embarrassment in future.

The leaders also emphasised need for floor coordination with the Congress, the main supporting party of the Government the idea was to accommodate various views and perceptions on issue. No floor coordination is complete without consulting the Congress, Reddy said.

Asked whether the abrupt withdrawal of the insurance regulatory authority bill was taken up at the meeting, he said it did not go into the merit of the bill since the differences in perception among the constituents were well known.

UNI