After the steep price rise in petrol by the UPA government all eyes are set on diesel and LPG prices. Will the government take the tough decision to hike prices in the other petroleum products too?
“I think there is need to raise the price in diesel and LPG,” said C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, to CNN-IBN.
Indian Prime Minister's economic advisory council chairman C. Rangarajan
“The fiscal deficit can be contained only if we act on cutting the subsidies and the most important element in the subsidies programme is the petroleum subsides,” he said. He added that maintaining the subsidies at a certain proportion of GDP is the need of the hour as it’s the only element in the total expenditure of the government which has certain amount of flexibility.
When CNN-IBN asked if this should be the government’s top priority, Rangarajan said, “I think it should be done as early as possible.”
Rangarajan also stressed that there are different ways of hiking the price. “There are also ways in which some low income groups are not deeply affected.”
