By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday said the government was left with no option but to hike the price of fuel due to soaring price of crude oil in the global market and asked for “wider political consensus to adopt more rational economic policies”.
“We cannot allow the subsidy bill to rise any further. Nor do we have the margin to fully insulate the consumer from the impact of world commodity price and oil price inflation,” Manmohan Singh said at the annual summit of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
“Up to a point we can insulate poor sections of our society and we have done that. Our government has not raised the price of kerosene in the past four years. We have only marginally raised LPG and diesel prices. Even petrol prices do not fully reflect world trends.
“In the case of other national resources, especially water, we have been altogether imprudent. This situation cannot continue forever. We need wider political consensus to adopt more rational economic policies,” the prime minister said.