Blame oil companies, not govt, for fuel hike: Congress

As the aam aadmi awaits another blow in the form of an impending petrol price hike, the Congress party has washed its hands off any responsibility on this issue.

“This is not a government decision any more. The price of petrol is decided by the oil companies, after the decontrol of the pricing mechanism,” said party spokesperson Manish Tewari.

He admitted the party is concerned over the impact of these hikes on the common man, but then the process of liberating the oil sector from government control was initiated during the NDA regime. “At that time it was felt that the prices should be decided on the basis of market mechanism,” he said.

Tewari did concede that the process was stopped during the UPA regime, but now the decision had been taken to remove the administered pricing mechanism.

“The international crude prices play a major role in deciding the retail price of petrol considering that we have to import over 80% of our requirement,” he added. The prices of aviation turbine fuel have been revised recently, and it is expected that a hike in the retail price of petrol would be announced soon.